thread for thinkpieces about TEH BIG BAD ALGORITHMS! ALGORITHMS! that don't seem to understand what an algorithm is

a constant infinity loop of ‘recommended if you like…’ playlists,”

If you like Bing Crosby Sings White Christmas you might like Bing Crosby Sings White Christmas... ???

re: the NLP stuff -- I would be skeptical of how useful it is, at least right now. my friend Emily (who actually does know what she is talking about) just posted about some of what's out there, which is... not fantastic: https://emshort.blog/2018/12/11/mailbag-ai-research-on-dialogue-and-story-generation-part-2/

(hey that's a cool person to be friends with)

yeah I wonder if silby isn't right about "NLP". OTOH textual sentiment analysis would be easy enough to run on those sources, though it's pretty dumb imo

oh sorry I see now your friend mentions SA

xp -- mostly through games stuff

I expected exhausting Bandersnatch takes but I did not expect this Jack Thompson twist:

https://qz.com/1513524/black-mirrors-bandersnatch-creates-the-future-not-predicts-it/

But what if instead of logging how many times you watched Love Actually this holiday season, it’s remembering whether you opted to kill your father in cold blood, or save him? What could Netflix do with that highly sensitive emotional information? ... The third concern is the most Black Mirror of them all. It’s not inconceivable to imagine that if the government got a hold of your data, it could think you’re someone worthy of future surveillance. Studies from the Oxford Internet Institute show that there is little evidence to say that playing violent video games lead to violent real-life behavior. However, there are still politicians that peddle this narrative. Could Netflix data be used to identify future terrorists or restrict your access to airports?

excuse me sir, we have here a file from a quote unquote "video game" called The Sims detailing how you trapped your quote unquote "Sims" in a house and set it on fire. sorry, but you have to leave the country now.

something that is actually correct: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/facebook-doesnt-need-to-fool-you.html

this in particular should be carved into a goddamn mountain:

In the same way that the breathtaking scope of contemporary surveillance and data-extraction processes makes conspiracy theories about astroturfed memes and bugged smartphones seem almost pathetic in comparison, it also reveals how little our own choices are able to control the flow of our data, and how little our knowledge really matters. I might be aware that photos of myself in 2009 could be misused, and choose not to participate in that meme. But simply by living a fairly regular life on and offline — by clicking on links and writing posts; by opening Instagram and scrolling through it, hovering over some photos and flicking past others; by using credit cards at chain stores; by letting photographs of myself be taken and uploaded to the internet — I’m generating data that’s probably more valuable to the companies involved than those photographs would be. There’s something tragic about the fact that the purely recreational activity of participating in a meme is the subject of conspiratorial paranoia, while the multitude of chore-like activities we do daily, from which data is also being extracted for hoarding or sale, go mostly ignored.

"Can we continue to use your data to tailor ads for you?" Popup irony...

i got stuck at a particular sentence in a blog post recently until i realized that they wrote 'logarithm' in place of 'algorithm'

I expected this bump to be about the aoc thing (which I still need to get through like four levels of Discourse telephone to figure out who's misrepresenting whom and by how much)

i'm not following things too closely but steve bellovin seems cogent

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/yes-algorithms-can-be-biased-heres-why/

yeah, once I actually read her comments rather than the crust of Discourse coating them, they were far more reasonable than anything in this thread

this one truly has it all https://medium.com/futuresin/why-algorithms-and-artificial-intelligence-are-a-threat-to-democracy-bd4d6b1114af

(I realize picking on something by a "Blockchain Mark Consultant, tech Futurist, prolific writer" is cheating, but it was in my inbox)

IBM must be grateful there's an I in Mafia

ha, I was going to ask, is this actually getting traction? The introduction is disqualifying on its own

the algorithm currently on my shit list is the one medium used to determine, correctly, that I would click this and email me about it

I don't even know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0F45NHLrRA

https://www.businessinsider.com/hbo-netflix-recommended-by-humans-website-fan-testimonial-2019-8

look out for the algorithims is something

i'm very fascinated by the placement of objects in that room, specifically the large potted plant which almost looks photoshopped in

seriously! like, why is dude putting his tripod on top of the kick drum head? Looks like it could lead to it ripping? ... otoh, he could have just put the tripod on the floor, if it weren't for the immense potted plant that seems to be there for no good reason? The potted plant is really jarring the more I think about it.

also the plant looks a *slight bit* tilted? from left to right? like it seems to tilt more than the bass drum
it's a very claustrophobic mise en scene

yeah ... the plant is really troubling ... maybe it was photoshopped in, but in place of some other object? also the tree branch that seems to be tapping at the window at various times? though we can't hear it in the recording, even though it is ostensibly being recorded through the zoom recorder on the tripod, which would presumably pick up some of that sound? though, maybe not?

and what are the drums resting on? it looks like it's some white pedestal or ... like they are just sitting in mid-air? is it just me, or does it kinda look like the snare/tom stack is just floating there?

really wish I knew who ran this account

Looking for non-algorithmic pop smashes!! https://t.co/SOm0DQqeSQ

— ShittyAandRguy (@shittyAandRguy) December 28, 2019

an otherwise ok aggregation post of a twitter workaround with an unfortunate title: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7kz9ez/go-into-2020-by-taking-your-twitter-feed-back-from-the-algorithm

Here's the heart of it:

By adding a few strings—little bits of code used by Twitter to tag types of tweets—to your muted keywords list, you can change the way the Twitter algorithm sends content to your feed.

While logged in to Twitter, go to Settings > Notifications > Muted > Muted words, and add the strings below.

•suggest_activity_tweet: Stops the platform from feeding you tweets you might like

•suggest_recycled_tweet_inline: Stops repeated tweets from appearing over and over

•suggest_pyle_tweet: Stops serving tweets because mutuals engaged with them

•suggest_grouped_tweet_hashtag: Stops tweets associated with popular hashtags from appearing randomly in your timeline

•suggest_who_to_follow: Self-explanatory

•generic-activity-momentsbreaking: Keep tweets served simply because they're part of a Moment out of your feed

right, take your feed back from the algorithm by... adding additional parameters to the algorithm

from this spotty essay on big thief: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/listening-in-an-emergency

The task of finding new music presents its own difficulties. If the trouble with YouTube is that it serves up progressively more extreme ideological content, Spotify has precisely the opposite problem, where any song, no matter how brilliant, quickly leads to a chain of forgettable copies that degrade the first song in retrospect.

a) so how, exactly, does this differ from YouTube? because the last time I checked YouTube had a music recommendation algorithm too (although half the time it just sends you to "Plastic Love"). or for that matter, how does this differ from the one on SoundCloud, or Bandcamp, or Amazon, or Last.fm, or literally every other music site that has a similarity feature?

b) 1,000 landfill indie copies exist of virtually every band in existence, because that's how influence works, and the only difference between a playlist and a used-record bin is that the used-record bin probably gave people an advance; in fact one could argue this is what brilliance is, the inability to fade into the background

c) and if Big Thief (the subject of the essay) is indeed brilliant, then why don't they get degraded by the 1,000 Big Thief copies that exist?

d) how exactly does this have anything to do with the rest of the essay

https://slate.com/technology/2020/07/college-admissions-algorithms-applications.html

"will colleges start using THE ALGORITHMS in admissions decisions?" unfortunately I have some bad news for the author about the current process that college admission boards use

college board website: "Large, public state university systems often use a mathematical formula based on a student's grade point average (GPA) and scores on the SAT or ACT. They tend to favor in-state applicants."

if there's some explanation for how this is not an algorithm, the author hasn't mentioned it

the algorithms haven't had a great week in the UK

https://www.wired.com/story/an-algorithm-determined-uk-students-grades-chaos-ensued/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/08/13/algorithm-has-ruined-a-level-results-thousands-students/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/a-level-exam-grades-faulty-algorithm-a4526646.html

Q: Who is to blame for the government's mishandling of a situation everyone saw coming six months ago?
A: The algorithms!

FWIW I think this scandal is a bit different as most people seem to correctly recognise that the algorithm is being used as a clumsy shield by the unforgivable people who are actually in charge of this shitstorm.

I'm going to lose my fucking mind:

Algorithms, by contrast, change as human behavior changes. They resemble not the cars or coal mines we have regulated in the past, but something more like the bacteria in our intestines, living organisms that interact with us. In one experiment, for example, Matias observed that when users on Reddit worked together to promote news from reliable sources, the Reddit algorithm itself began to prioritize higher-quality content.

this is the equivalent of saying "when people started adding 2+4 instead of 2+2, the algorithm produced 6 instead of 4! It's changing!" (or, in this case: "when people started to promote more high-quality content, the prioritize-stuff-people-promote algorithm started to prioritize more high-quality content! It's changing!")

i think my brain needs a new algorithm

Recipes, by contrast, change as human behavior changes. The recipe called for chicken so the first time I made it, I used a can of dog food. The second time I used fresh chicken, resulting in higher-quality food.

now uk government policy

The minister in charge of the new law regulating behaviour online has told social media bosses to “remove your harmful algorithms today” - or face swift criminal prosecution https://t.co/BkxI3Hwcr8

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 4, 2021

Is that Secretary Aimless? ;)

She said of the social media companies: "They know what they're doing wrong."

Her junior minister, Chris Philp, added: "The platforms have no regard or scant regard for protecting people… it is completely unacceptable and irresponsible."

Ms Dorries, who was unexpectedly promoted to culture secretary by Boris Johnson in last month's reshuffle, also confirmed that the bill would use an expansive definition of online harm, up to and including "psychological harm" caused by abuse.

The government has found the exact nature of "online harm" difficult to pin down and critics - including tech company lobbyists - argue that it has still not been properly defined in the legislation.

The government is being urged to use its upcoming Online Safety Bill to give police and prosecutors more powers.

Ms Dorries said she believed the definition was "quite clear", saying: "If it causes physical or psychological injury then, of course, it wouldn't be allowed."

However, she said that the concept of "societal harm", which some have called on to be included in the bill, was "too complex" to put into law.

my god

Omg they're doing it out in the open!!

https://www.algoriddim.com/

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22775580/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-judge-apple-ai-pinch-to-zoom-footage-manipulation-claim

What the fucking fuck. Fuck this judge.

judge is 75. judge doesn't do email

“iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three-dimensions and logarithms,” the defense insisted. “It uses artificial intelligence, or their logarithms, to create what they believe is happening. So this isn’t actually enhanced video, this is Apple’s iPad programming creating what it thinks is there, not what necessarily is there,” they added.

...Judge Schroeder argued that it was the prosecution — not the defense — that had the burden of proving that Apple doesn’t use artificial intelligence to manipulate footage, demanding that they provide an expert to testify, and didn’t allow the prosecution to adjourn to find that expert before bringing Rittenhouse up for cross-examination. The judge suggested that prosecutors could somehow find that expert in 20 minutes while they took a brief recess. “Maybe you can get someone to testify on this within minutes, I don’t know,” said the judge. No such expert was there by the time the trial resumed.

someone, find an expert on logarithms!!

i think i could be a pioneering lawyer, now that i know this kind of stuff works!

your honor, i'm afraid that all of the video and audio exhibits presented by the prosecution must be thrown out. you see, they don't want you to know all of the video and audio has been manipulated. it is not the original sound and images that a witness would have perceived in real life. these sounds and images were captured by a device - an iPhone, made by a company called Apple - and then stored on their digital platform. in the process, apple uses proprietary "logarithms" to convert these files for storage.

Judge Larry Fontaine: I am so sick of these companies and their logarithms trying to fool us. Prosecution, unless you can produce a logarithm expert while I go take a 20-minute three-flusher, I will be forced to throw out all evidence in this trial. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a crossword to do

Why does the YouTube Music algorithim think I want to hear "Take My Breathe Away" every goddam day

if they mean The Knife single then because it's a great single