Tag Archives: ai

How to Make Facebook Show You the Stuff You Really Care About

June 15, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

Facebook doesn’t really do its job when you ask of it to follow a website for you. Before getting into the reasons and details, here are two images that explain how you can properly follow a page on Facebook. Unless you change your notification settings as shown in the images, the default behavior is that whatever you see in your news feed is at the whim of algorithms designed to extract money out of everybody using the website – users on the one side and advertisers on the other. Sadly Facebook treats as advertisers even non-profit content creators such as myself, but more on that below. However, at least for now, there are still ways to circumvent the algorithms. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Fueling the division

It’s a pity that I even have to type this but alas, due to the rather unfair algorithms employed by Facebook (and many other social networks), I realize it’s necessary to explain the current situation. Before I start, I’d like to emphasize that I have no problem with Facebook making a profit. As a living commercial entity, it needs to survive in order to evolve. But what will it evolve into? We as users of Facebook need to voice our concerns if we wish to have a say in its evolution. A social network should be the best place to make oneself heard but unfortunately, in the case of Facebook this is increasingly false.

For example even if you follow Mentatul on Facebook, you will still not see all the new posts in your feed because the social network uses a ruthless filtering system that actually separates people into comfort bubbles^. This algorithm has its upsides because it can show users more of the stuff they are actually interested in, but it comes at a great cost.

First of all, it deepens the chasms between social groups, reducing one’s opportunity to discuss with people outside one’s comfort zone. Like any company, Facebook wants its users happy. Happy users spend more time on the website and make the company more money. I’m not saying that the Facebook experience should become a carousel of discomfort, being bombarded with things you don’t care about or even disturb you. But instead of allowing users to become isolated tribes there should be certain topics that can cross all boundaries, especially topics that are important for social development (equal rights, education, ecosystem, anti-corruption, critical thinking).

Perhaps one day AI algorithms will be smart enough to discern between constructive writing (ideas, criticism, analysis) and intellectual poison (false news, hate speech). The question is if the humans sitting at the control panel will allow these algorithms to contribute to educating people. Certain elite groups prefer to dumb down the masses so that they are easily controllable. But there are also those that have realized that an educated population can be much more profitable for the entire species in the long run.

Making life difficult for non-profits

Another way Facebook algorithms are hurting is treating non-profits as if they were advertisers. The website is built quite “intelligently” so that it coerces the owners of pages into paying for getting exposure. It’s understandable when we’re talking about commercial, for-profit entities. But sadly, for all its “well meaning”^ attitude, Facebook doesn’t help non-profits much. Most of my posts there hardly reach a third of my followers, with the website constantly nagging me to pay in order to reach more people.

There is zero advertisement on Mentatul and the website doesn’t bring me any money yet, quite the contrary, it consumes time and bandwidth. I will never charge for my work, everything is provided for free, with a possible future option for donations. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t care that my page is a non-profit. Even though I’m an independent writer, it still treats me as an advertiser. What a non-profit cares about is for people who are interested in what the non-profit has to say to receive all updates.

When I post something on Mentatul’s Facebook page, it gets shown to a (sometimes very) limited amount of people “following” the page. To make matters worse, I’ve noticed that the most important articles, such as the ones about social issues (consumerism, intellectual diet, cultural and environmental decay) are shared even less. It’s not surprising, because such articles seem to go against Facebook’s profit-driving forces: advertisement.

This is not a revolution. It’s evolution

What makes me even sadder about this situation is that I’m not even against any company making money! I’m not against advertisement at all. Treating our consumerism problem for example doesn’t mean there won’t be advertisement or profits anymore.

It simply means that companies should be encouraged to produce higher quality products with replaceable parts at increased cost. The increased cost is a profit driver that will allow companies to cover for the R&D investment required for providing better quality and the infrastructure required for maintaining products for a longer time.

Competition means that there will always be winners and losers. Curing consumerism will still be done by companies, but it has to be us, the buyers of products, who make sure that non-consumerist companies succeed. Facebook still has a place in that world, so does advertisement and corporations. But it can all be done in a much better fashion in order to safeguard our ecosystem and continued quality of life on this planet.

And this is how I turned a post about how to follow a website into a philosophical discussion about economy, advertisement and the artificial intelligence used by social networks. Seriously though, if you like what I write here, please go through the trouble of following my Facebook page properly :D.

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About Zuckerberg’s Global Community Vision

February 27, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

Two weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of FaceBook, dropped what I consider to be an ideological bombshell on the tech industry and on business in general. It doesn’t even matter what the true intentions behind it are. It grabbed attention and dared to change – at least for a little while – the tune of the global business discourse.

Mark’s Global Community^ post is very well written and published at the ideal time to provide maximum PR value. I’m not surprised that some have even seen it as a sort of political statement. I liked how this article^ from The Guardian explores the text.

Perhaps this is indeed the beginning of the age of corporations governing the planet publicly (rather than from the shadows). If it is, I’d definitely have Mark run the show rather than somebody like Trump. I try to keep a balanced tone on this website but even though I can understand why Trump has become the man he is (given the society that shaped him), I do believe it’s healthier to leave his world ideology behind and advance to something more akin to what Mark is envisioning.

Mark’s “manifesto”, as some in the press have called it, is of course rich with positive examples about FaceBook’s achievements. What I really appreciated though is the fact that it acknowledged some serious issues with the website, such as the fact that some people’s posts get censored when they shouldn’t and posts that should be removed are not. Mark’s explanation for this makes a lot of sense: “we’re operating at such a large scale that even a small percent of errors causes a large number of bad experiences.”

Still, FaceBook does censorship. It has a special kind of censorship but it’s still censorship. And I don’t mean this respected author^ getting banned for saying bad things about Trump’s supporters. Perhaps that was a good way to break the circle of insults. What I mean is how FaceBook prevents people from being exposed to other opinions, keeping them inside their comfort zones, blissfully unaware of the storm raging outside. I call this phenomenon ideological clumping. FaceBook engages in this probably because a happy user generates more revenue for the company.

This issue of ideological clumping is addressed in the manifesto so I’m curious how FaceBook will deal with it in the future, especially given the fact that its financial model is based on convincing creatives to pay money in order to get their content in front of their followers. By this I mean how the default follow command on FaceBook only means that a user allows the application’s algorithms to sometimes show posts from a followed person, page or group.

The manifesto also addresses the issue of fake news. The viral spread of misinformation using social media is an intellectual disease that has given Trump more than a few votes – granted, he wasn’t the sole benefactor of this phenomenon. Sadly, this is a problem that Mark & co. will have to work much harder to fix than by writing a goody two shoes manifesto.

Last but not least, FaceBook’s visionary CEO mentions artificial intelligence quite often. Trusting A.I. to do the very hard work of curating content is a risky bet with a lot of unknowns – something he acknowledges, but not strongly enough I think. If A.I. were truly intelligent I’d be more inclined to trust it, but right now, we’re talking about some closed-source (sometimes buggy) algorithms that are controlling the information people are exposed to, not to mention able to shut people up. There’s less intelligence in there than there is manipulation for the advertisers’ interests.

I’m quite sure the company has plenty of ulterior motives when it wants to offer free internet to people. Mark actually made some parallels to television in his text. Well, television was free in many countries if only to make it easier to manipulate the masses. “Connect the world” they say. But FaceBook is not only a tool for change. It’s also an advertisement platform, let’s not forget that. And the kind of product that political parties have to sell is much more dangerous than a brand of bad detergent.

When it’s all said and done, I think that Mark’s step forward volunteering to do what can be done in helping with global problems is a positive example for corporate responsibility. This manifesto was needed and I’m truly happy it’s out there. For this reason, I’m going to give Mark & co. the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what the future holds. So far, score 1 for FaceBook.

Oh, and one more thing. I am really curious to see how other corporations will respond to this and if they even will. I’m thinking especially about Google, whose “do no evil” mantra 5 to 10 years ago was heading the company towards the same style of social action that FaceBook is doing today. But now-a-days Google’s execs seem even more uninspiring than Microsoft’s.

Today FaceBook has something way more powerful than Google: it has people’s lives, not only their web searches. Combine this with a bright CEO that has a very skilled PR team behind him and you get yourself a serious challenger to tech leadership. If Mark showed anything to these behemoths it’s the fact that in the 21^st century a CEO is as much a public figure as any politician and perhaps even more needed.

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The Vehicles of the Future and Our Security

May 4, 2016 Axonn Echysttas 4 Comments

As the world becomes increasingly connected, so are all the devices that we’re using. Vehicles, of course, are no exception. But while a hacked phone or refrigerator won’t be immediately life-threatening, a compromised vehicle can endanger the lives of many.

Nissan found itself in hot water after security researchers managed to hack its electric cars through a web link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nissan-leaf-hacked-web-link,31275.html^

The auto-maker shuttered the faulty software application^, but according to the article above, this might not have been enough since “attackers don’t even need to use the NissanConnect app, because they can deliver the attack through a web browser by spoofing the app.”

With self-driving cars heading our way fast, this is not my idea of a software ecosystem that I would trust with my life. In addition to all the immense challenges that companies involved in researching automated driving will have to overcome, the security aspect will have to be handled in an extremely careful way. Check what they did to this jeep^.

Self-driving vehicles will, through their very nature, rely on a wealth of external information. When they will go mainstream, we will already be talking about automatically negotiating traffic lights, combining more vehicles into trains for optimal fuel efficiency or tragedy-prevention ethics^ (I highly recommend reading the linked article).

Companies have proved time and again that they care about little else than their profit margins. There is very little regard for safety and quality. In a recent posting^, I wrote that we’re perhaps partially to blame for this. Unless the situation changes both we and our environment will suffer because of these companies’ neglect.

At least some sort of relief comes from the fact that some governments will make hacking vehicles a very serious criminal offense. Michigan, for example, proposes to go as far as life in prison^. But what about the companies that allow their applications to be hacked (due to rushing the development process)? I believe those entities should face equally serious punishments.

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How the Stock Market Drives Companies Insane

February 29, 2016 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

In the past decade, we’ve witnessed countless cases of companies breaking the law and harming the environment in their frenetic quest for profits. The most recent high profile case is Volkswagen’s cheating in the emissions scandal^. Or was the toxic spill from a mine in Brazil^ worse? In case we’re undecided, perhaps the disastrous explosion in China^ can take the prize? All of these happened in the space of four months in 2015.

Now, just think about how many companies get away with extremely dangerous practices just because we haven’t caught them or because disaster hasn’t struck yet. I believe there is an explanation for these behaviors. And, as it is often the case, understanding the causes of an undesired behavior can give us clues about how we can change it.

A life-form analogy

Profit is the motivating force behind a company’s decisions. Following a natural tendency, the individuals that have teamed up to form a commercial entity share the desire for prosperity. This collaboration between individuals is similar to the association of more cells that constitute a multi-cellular organism. Companies can therefore be seen as a sort of life-form. The environment where many of the larger life-forms exist is called the stock market.

One of the most important changes that the stock market has seen in the past decades is the worrying drop in stock ownership time. Actually, this has outright plummeted in recent years. What this means is that companies have less time to prove themselves to investors and, often, this negatively impacts their long-term strategies.

The stock market is forcing corporations to make a profit as large and as soon as possible, lest investors simply pull the plug and move on to the next “growth opportunity”. This childish attitude on the part of the investing public forces many economic entities into a ruthless quest for profit. The alternative is death and, like any life-form, a company will do everything in its power to survive.

As with all ecosystems, there is a relationship of interdependence between companies and the stock market. While companies adapt to their environment, they also have the power to change that environment. The problem is that, for the time being, there’s a lot of greed and paranoia swirling inside this ecosystem.

The rules of the game

If the stock market influences the companies’ behavior, it stands to reason that skillful changes in the market could help companies to become friendlier. The main issue in the investment game is that most of the players are, to put it mildly, uneducated. Fewer investors than ever hold a company’s stock for more than a year. Like hyper-active children, most of them stumble into speculation, fattening the paychecks of brokers and stressing out everybody in the market.

With or without the stock market, companies are bound to sometimes play dirty due to their desire for profit. Unfortunately, the lack of proper investment principles on the part of the public becomes yet another reason to adopt bad policies and take massive risks.

A ruthless stock market may mean better profits for a while, but it’s us breathing in Volkswagen’s fumes; losing our planet under mountains of sludge; having our life blown to bits due to the fact that some manager decided to improve his bottom line by neglecting the security of a warehouse that contains 900 tons of ammonium nitrate. I’m referring, of course, to the three articles that are linked in the first paragraph.

We’ve built a jungle-like environment for these corporate life-forms, and we’re reaping the rewards. As companies are becoming more and more disconnected from humanity, our values and ideals become secondary – all bow in front of the throne of the quarterly financial statements. It’s survival of the fittest.

Solutions

The most obvious way to break this vicious circle we’re in is, of course, education; not only financial education, but also psychological education. Financially, investors need to understand the concept of long-term investments. Psychologically, they need to be prepared to weather the ups and downs of the stock market and to hold onto their assets (provided that those assets are of a company that the investor truly cares about, has vetted and has faith in its long-term vision).

Certain changes of policy must be applied on the companies’ end as well. We should take back our governments from the greedy claws of lobbyists. Through the increased independence thus gained, we can facilitate the creation of a strict code of conduct for corporations, enforceable through larger fines and increased regulation.

Some will cry that this will stifle innovation. Perhaps it will, to a certain degree, which is why any such measures must be taken together with the companies and the people that brought their success. Let us not forget that these entities are comprised of our brothers and sisters.

Too many times have we, as a species, decided that we know best when we intervene in an ecosystem. We must heed the delicate balance of the stock market and the companies that inhabit it. Now is the time for dialogue, for finding a harmonious way to co-exist with these corporations, before they decide that they don’t have any need for humans. Even if we don’t manage to create true artificial intelligence, automated processes will continue to make humans obsolete.

Note 1: For those interested in the stock market, I can recommend one of the best books I’ve ever read on the subject of financial and psychological education in investment: Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor”. Warren Buffett is one of the author’s students.

Note 2: I’ve entered the stock market roughly 8 months ago and so far, never sold a single stock. I’ve invested in two established, dividend-paying North-American semiconductor companies, one major software company and a promising (but high-risk) computer games studio in Sweden.

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Big Corporations Go After Artificial Intelligence

February 5, 2016 Axonn Echysttas 2 Comments

The word “Go” in the title is not coincidental. Much earlier than expected, an AI program managed to defeat a human Go champion. Artificial Intelligence has had the upper hand in the game of Chess for more than a decade already. However, defeating humans at the game of Go requires a different kind of intelligence than it is the case with Chess.

Here’s the news report about Google having reached this important milestone in AI development: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/546066/googles-ai-masters-the-game-of-go-a-decade-earlier-than-expected/^

IBM, Google, Microsoft, FaceBook, Amazon and Apple are all pouring billions of dollars into this sort of research. So do other companies and, less advertised, so do many governments. Not to mention universities and even hobbyists. The jury is still out regarding whether strong (true) Artificial Intelligence is even achievable.

My worry is that once a corporation or government manages to succeed in this venture, the result might offer that entity an unimaginable economic and strategic advantage. Such an advantage will make nuclear weapons seem like a wet firecracker in comparison.

Some have said that AI will be our last invention, for better or for worse. That is because AI might overtake us in intelligence to such an extent that it could invent things that we cannot even begin to imagine. So the risk lies not only in the birth of true AI, but also in whatever new beings such intelligence might give birth to as it grows and learns how to play with its intelligence. All this may very well lead us to immortality or to extinction.

If you’d like to learn more about the topic, I recommend you to read this excellent two part article explaining what it’s all about. It’s quite long but it’s an interesting and pleasant read. At least skip through it, because a life-changing Artificial Intelligence development may be closer than you think.

Part 1:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html^

Part 2

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html^

I also find it quite interesting that some corporations are open sourcing their AI frameworks and tools. I have a fair amount of trust that a large economic entity or a scientific organization will be at least a bit careful about how they program the ethical aspects of an AI, if nothing else then for self-preservation purposes. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about hobbyists who might not even give a priority to such a vital concern.

Microsoft Open Sources Artificial Intelligence Toolkit:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2498435,00.asp^

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