For an analysis of this post by two AIs in a podcast format, click on the audio player below.
For a visual and audio analysis of this post by one AI click on the video player below.
During September of 2020, Netflix released the documentary “The Social Dilemma”. A film that delves deeply into the impact of social media platforms, particularly Facebook, on society. You can find it on Netflix or, if you search deep enough, YouTube.
As a Facebook subscriber since September 2006 and an Internet user since the mid-1980s, when I worked for AT&T Canada’s Computer Systems Division, the film was a gut punch for me. I, inadvertently, had, without my permission, become a commodity. A collection of interests, data points and perspectives that social media sold to advertisers.
Their business model was simple and insidious. The more that social media knew about me, the more accurately they could keep me engaged. The longer I doom-scrolled, the higher the chances they’d have to present an ad in my feed that I would click on and spend money. “Oooo, what a cute cat t-shirt! Here! Take my money!”
Enter artificial intelligence as it existed in the mid-2010s. AI quickly discovered that the angrier I was, the more engaged I became. My anger made them money, so it was fostered and nurtured. In effect, AI-enabled social media and humanity’s reaction to it became our first civilization-level battle with a planetary invader – AI or, more accurately, Alien Intelligence.
We lost that battle.
Will we lose the next one?
Where I’m Going
My Websites
https://www.sorcerersapprentice.ai
https://www.forefrontsystems.com
My Social Media feeds
The Sorcerer's Apprentice 
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