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The problem is not so much that we are increasingly relying on algorithms to be our interface with an increasingly information-intensive world. With the rise of the Internet and AI, his trend is inevitable. The issue is control.
Rather than letting newsfeed algorithms manipulate us to achieve opaque goals (such as swaying your political opinions, or maximally wasting your time), we should put the user in control of the goals that the algorithms optimize for.
It should be possible for users to configure their newsfeed to maximize learning and personal growth, for instance (or anything else). In that case, a more sophisticated AI, instead of being a threat, would be beneficial to you -- letting you achieve your goals more efficiently.
In the long-run, education and self-development will be some of the most impactful applications of AI. This will happen through dynamics that almost entirely mirror that of a nefarious AI-enabled newsfeed trying to control you. Only difference being who sets the algorithm's goals
AI will be our interface to the world -- a world made of digital information. This can equally lead to empowering individuals and communities to gain greater control over their lives, or to a total loss of agency. And regrettably, we're currently engaged on the wrong road
As a side note, this is why products like Google search, Gmail, iOS, Android are beneficial while the Facebook newsfeed is destructive. The former are active, they empower users to do more, to know more. The latter manipulates your worldview and seeks to maximally waste your time
As an industry, we need to develop product categories and markets where the incentives are aligned with placing the user in charge of the AI, instead of using AI to exploit the user's mind for profit or political gain. We need to strive towards products that are the anti-Facebook
Algorithms are your delusions
As data analysis takes on an increasingly prominent role in our lives, I worry about what values we will lose in the cracks that cannot be adequately described by data.
I think the issue is that algorithms (as well as organizations, and humans) are better at optimizing what is short term and can get expressed accurately as a quantified metric, than long term and can't easily be measured. Algorithms make the problem more salient and pernicious
The Information Age is over. We are in the Reputation Age, which requires long-term, diverse and interdisciplinary thinking to design and build. Zero governance in design isn’t about no governance, it results in bad governance.
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