Top FB ad exec responding to the 2017 article calling them out for targeting depressed teens:
"We shout this from the rooftops. This is what puts money in all our pockets. And these statements make it look like it’s something nefarious." (in the linked article)
This is absolutely despicable. It is not surprising given how he started out “rating” young women’s “looks” in college.
Apparently he has self worth issues as he continues to prey on females perceived vulnerabilities due to society’s inequality & overall shortcomings.
As a human being…zuck sucks.
My plea whenever this book comes up: buy it! Because of Meta’s legal assault it can’t get publicity, so it needs sales, and even if you are very online the portrayal of Facebook and its people is extremely readable and absolutely devastating.
What most people don't understand and don't even know, is that such nefarious targeting does not even need a malignant product team to craft that manually.
With modern feature learning, algos designed to optimize clicks, and enough signal in input, the algo will discover the "trick" by itself..
Mhm, we need to treat AI black boxes as "maximize your goal using whatever means we give you no matter what the cost", because that's literally what they are.
The problem with this position is that it lets Meta off the hook ("We didn't do it! It was that pesky algorithm!") -- it provides them plausible deniability in the likely case that they DID do this intentionally.
I fully agree in that sense. Ultimately, designing an algo only pursuing revenue with absolutely no accountability is a management decision.
My point was about that particular interaction (nudging teenagers from their behavior on app). It does not even require dedicated work.
Could it be the opposite ? Blame some junior engineer down the hierarchy, and not letting the idea take root that their algorithms are essentially amoral, optimized for revenue, and that they're materially unable to moderate all the nudges applied on billions and billions of interactions
This is what I was thinking when I read the headline. We have to be proactive about telling the algorithms what not to do and with a lack of diversity in the development world people aren't thinking about these outcomes.
I imagine this is the algorithm mindlessly optimizing for engagement and happening upon some dark exploitation. If so it's more concerning as that doesn't require people to be fiendishly plotting this, it just happens, meaning this will be far more wide reaching.
It’s almost like when a corporation has unregulated and unfettered access to at risk populations they have zero problem with taking advantage of every advantage they can find… what a surprise.
What? No, what a strange response. The fact is that the foundation of Facebook was also not healthy or good. It wasn’t an innocent thing. Why would it not be good to know & acknowledge that?
It's a pretty fair point to highlight that it actually started as something quite close to this hateful behaviour rather than 'a great way to connect with friends'
You still all know who Snowden is?I swear i´ve been getting ads after talking about things with folks.Not looking it up. Even when it´s targeted ads based on what i looked up, guess what? Telling me people with my skin condition are awesome people doesn´t make me less creeped out and unlikely to Buy
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Top FB ad exec responding to the 2017 article calling them out for targeting depressed teens:
"We shout this from the rooftops. This is what puts money in all our pockets. And these statements make it look like it’s something nefarious." (in the linked article)
Apparently he has self worth issues as he continues to prey on females perceived vulnerabilities due to society’s inequality & overall shortcomings.
As a human being…zuck sucks.
...fuckin hive of scum and villainy.
It is very good and very scary.
With modern feature learning, algos designed to optimize clicks, and enough signal in input, the algo will discover the "trick" by itself..
My point was about that particular interaction (nudging teenagers from their behavior on app). It does not even require dedicated work.
What started as a great way to connect with friends is now a disgusting manipulative ogre.
Zuck helped orchestrate the Myanmar genocide. He deserves a life sentence.
They aren’t monsters. They’re ordinary human beings. Just your average folk lacking any capacity for human decency or compassion.