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Let’s not make the same mistakes with AI that we made with social media (www.technologyreview.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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From the article: "In particular, five fundamental attributes of social media have harmed society. AI also has those attributes. Note that they are not intrinsically evil. They are all double-edged swords, with the potential to do either good or ill. The danger comes from who wields the sword, and in what direction it is swung. This has been true for social media, and it will similarly hold true for AI. In both cases, the solution lies in limits on the technology’s use."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (7 children)

Social media is just another scapegoat like Russian bots.

The truth is much worse: most people are, and have always been awful, bloodthirsty ghoulish pieces of shit and they were so before social media, you just know it now.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

No friend, no, I'm sorry, but the whole world just wouldn't work if that were actually the case. Humanity is inherently altruistic. The issue is that people struggle to be that and survive. We just have to ramp down the me:first and push more for society. EU is starting to make those in-roads, so stay positive!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'd say it's that we all have these elements within us.

We're all born as selfish idiots, how can we be otherwise? We're helpless at birth, thrust from perfect comfort and safety into discomfort, utterly ignorant and wholly dependent, with no knowledge there are others, who are just as dependent when they're born.

There's the variability in personality, but by and large we have to learn to see others as the same as ourselves.

So while we may not all actively try to be assholes, it takes conscious effort to be better than our base nature.

And, I tend to think we all get to be assholes now and again. We all have moments we can look back on and say "oh, yea, I was the asshole that time".

Social media just reflects humanity, though the algorithms are certainly designed to increase engagement via the simplest mechanisms - emotional engagement. And which are the easiest to target? Yep - the most basic, they have the broadest appeal, because we all share those base emotions.

Another way to look at this: if we didn't share these base emotions, would the algorithms have any effect?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

World Hunger is literally a problem of corruption. The vast majority of problems are "we could solve this, but it costs money and we'd rather have another mega yacht". If humans were truly altruistic, homelessness and hunger wouldn't be issues at all. Are we savages? Maybe not. But overall altruistic? Bullshit.

There's a reason we idolize heros instead of treating them as mundane. They are exceptional, not the norm.

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