They are coming for your attention and your money.
Apparently, focus groups started back in the late 30s at Princeton University to understand the impact of war propaganda films. But it was not until the late 50s/early 60s when companies started to pay attention to them. They realized having a group of 5 to 10 people giving their opinion in a controlled environment will provide more precise insights into what consumers were looking for. Therefore, they could learn how to make their products more appealing!
Fast forward until today, and you will find algorithms! What are they? Which was the purpose of their development? In a less technical definition, we may say “an algorithm is a set of instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task” in a less technical description. Pretty harmless so far, right?
Add to that equation the social media, the news organization, politics, companies trying to profit, religions, etc.… and their nonending need to get your attention ALL the time for money. What does that lead us to? Well, we get to a place where massive computer processing power is used to “shout” at you many times per minute, programmed to get your attention. They will then influence something with significantly smaller processing power in comparison: your brain! The difference in processing power is enormous, so huge that one can’t even determine who is influencing who here.
Are you sure you like that particular thing, or have you been led in that direction by the algorithm? I can give thousands of examples of things we know are wrong, or at least do not cause any benefit to anybody, that we all keep doing it! From cigarettes to social media, from drugs to sodas, from the proliferation of many medicines for “imaginary” diseases to increased surgeries!
With such influencing power on our “small little minds,” algorithms are now “telling” us what to do and think instead of “listening” to us and trying to satisfy our needs! In a kind of way, when “the creature” (AI algorithm) starts controlling “the creator” (the Human mind)!
It is widespread to see people blaming “robots” for losing their jobs in the future because they will be replacing factory or supermarket workers. But when in reality, “robots” do repetitive non-creative tasks way better than…
