“But technology is a two-edged sword. And I’m not referring to its power to destroy. (At least, not this time),” Justin Bariso writes for Inc. “I’m talking about the power technology brings to manipulate.”
“Two renowned professors of law, Maurice E. Stucke at the University of Tennessee and Ariel Ezrachi at the University of Oxford, recently penned a thoughtful essay for Wired, entitled: The Subtle Ways Your Digital Assistant Might Manipulate You,” Bariso writes. “In it, they argue that we are granting unparalleled control to the companies behind the technology we value most in our day-to-day lives.”
“Stucke and Ezrachi envision a world where our digital butlers compliment and cajole us, encourage us to communicate, and even send personalized notes on our behalf–all of this potentially affecting our moods and those of our friends,” Bariso writes. “It won’t stop there, though. The authors continue: ‘As the digital butler expands its role in our daily lives, it can alter our worldview…”With two billion ‘likes’ a day and one billion comments,” psychiatrist Dr. Eva Ritvo wrote in Psychology Today, “Facebook stimulates the release of loads of dopamine as well as offering an effective cure to loneliness.” Imagine the dopamine spike when your butler secures a personal record in the number of “likes” for a political message it suggested. Your friends won’t know that your butler drafted the post. And none of us will know how that post might sway the public discourse in ways that benefit the super-platform.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri, you manipulative little bitch!
Siri responded two ways:
• “I’m doing my best.”
• “Well, I’m still here for you.”
Right now I’m more worried about our media crises and how biased they are. They should be neutral and not lean one way or the other. CNN was Clinton News Network for the past year or so. The media can control a lot as well!
Let us not forget the amount of fake news coming from all corners of the internet. There are small towns in far-flung places, such as Macedonia or Georgia (not Atlanta, GA, but Tbilisi, Georgia, or as they call it, Gruziya), where young entrepreneurs are bringing it nice cash by posting fake news on Facebook and other social media. In the echo-camber of American ideological divide, these news quickly get traction and end up on FoxNews (or, less likely, CNN). Apparently, fake conservative news pay much better than fake liberal ones, so fake news makers focus on where the money is.
How the heck is Apple using tech to control the world especially with such crappy little market share? Apple doesn’t come close to Alphabet or Facebook in terms of sheer numbers of users. Youtube alone could probably distort the entire planet with incorrect “facts”. There are so many dishonest and biashed people posting crap on Youtube it’s just ridiculous. Alphabet can remove all of the bad stuff put up against its own company and promote negative lies about other companies products. Same with political views. It’s really dangerous what people can do on Youtube.
Well, if the claim of ‘smart’ influential people selecting iPhone over Android is believed, Apple’s Siri has a good chance of wielding great power. 🙂