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We can all generally agree that the business of social media is a big huge mess. Misinformation is still rampant, regulators can’t get a hold on any of it, and it might be tearing democracy apart. You know this part.

The big question looming over today’s internet is this: can we do any better with AI?

Technology writer and researcher Alexandra Samuel supposes, “yes, maybe” in her recent piece titled, “We got social media wrong. Can we get AI right?”

The problem with social media in a nutshell is it used to be cool: small communities focused on specific interests without a profit motive. There wasn’t a “business” of social media back in 2000’s. Life was good. Soon, people/companies/zuck realized you could make boatloads of cash selling ads and diverting people’s attention to sensational things. Rinse, repeat, lame.

Samuel supposes we are on the same path to do the same thing with AI: massive corporations indifferent to misinformation harvesting huge paydays regardless of the consequences. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

The main antidote to the perils we saw with social media is education. Understanding how large language models, generative adversarial nets, and similar come up with their outputs is paramount of avoiding abuse and manipulation as consumers. We largely wandered into social media without an understanding of the incentive structures at play and got bowled over in the process — we’d benefit greatly by not doing the same thing again.

Of course, mass education on a bleeding edge emerging technology is unlikely. Politicians are ill-equipped to handle even basic photo and video feeds, so they’re unlikely to grasp LLaMA — but if you’re reading this there’s a great chance that you, dear reader, are responsible for important pieces of the internet and can make a difference.

It’s a critical time for you as a technologist and as a human to step forward and shape the future of this technology that will dominate the next 20+ years of our lives. Get educated and get active. How exactly? That’s what we need to figure out.

ON THE INTERNETS

Weird, Rare, and Everywhere: https://hakaimagazine.com/features/weird-rare-and-everywhere/

Before the Fire: Saturn-Apollo Applications: https://www.wired.com/2012/08/before-the-fire/

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Mathematics* (*But didn’t even know to ask): https://www.math.cmu.edu/~jmackey/151_128/bws_book.pdf

Always wanted a lighthouse? US is giving some away, selling others at auction: https://apnews.com/article/lighthouses-free-auction-preservation-coast-guard-7d6c66717a14d9488520a90f07b96f46

Tape storage trundles on, increases yearly volume to 128 exabytes: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/tape-storage-trundles-on-increases-yearly-volume-to-128-exabytes

TWEET OF THE WEEK

See ya next week

— 💬 The EiT Crew at Status Hero