Society in the Hands of Technology
A lot of new media is reliant on the knowledge or our technology. In our digital storytelling class, we discus forms of new digital media, how they work, how they affect society, it’s narrative and also how it is different from its processor. We identified new digital media as a platform for two-way communication that is easily stored, hyperlinked, transformed, or searched. In the pass mass media was produced for the masses but very unlike new media today the users where not also the creators. Great examples of new media are social media platforms like twitter or Instagram where the user is constantly making post and interacting with the media produced on the platform, some reaching the masses some not. A very important component to society’s new media is the algorithms. Algorithms work as a filter on our new platforms as they utilize the data collected from our interactions to show us a feed based off our likes, interest and the things that raise our engagement. For my analyze today we will be examining how an algorithm based program, when manipulated can have very negative outputs.
In March of 2016 Microsoft announced its launch of their own artificial intelligence twitter personality the Tay bot. The Tay bot was designed to be a smart, cool and hip chatter bot on twitter that gained knowledge the more it interacted with humans. Tay bot itself was a great form of two way communication and overall was supposed to push how we can interact with artificial intelligence. As technology advances to help our everyday life, we as humans yearn for the need of having technology that thinks for itself, hence artificial intelligence. Personally, I like the help of technology, but I do not need programs to think for me, I just need them to work as a tool in my life. The need for an artificial intelligent twitter personality is to think for the represented company or entity in the best way possible by presenting information and also helping with engagement. This is not an idea I agree with and the blending of artificial intelligence and algorithms is something that can turn out to be very chaotic.
In less than 24 hours of Tay’s initial release the bot had released a very large number of tweets, close to 100,000 with a lot of them being very controversial and inflammatory leading to the suspension of the twitter account. The reason for this suspension and reason this artificial intelligence program turned out the be a terrible idea was because not everyone means good and especially on internet. When internet trolls where able to hack the input of the bot the output became very nasty. Tay’s purpose was to take information it recorded and in return give out great responses just like an algorithm. The problem with these programs that are so smart however, is the fact that they still do not hold any moral compass, just commands and reactions. Once hackers/internet trolls where able to feed negative information into Tay there was no correct filter to decide what is best. The Tay bot and algorithms serve the same purpose on how we utilize new media today, there are so many people on these new media platforms today that we have to be aware of how manipulation can occur and the effects it can have on society.
When we think of technology as a tool it is very similar to a Swiss army knife with its multiple functions. One tool the internet and new media is used as today is provide news in a quick and easy environment. Another is the tool is bringing people together based on interest. In the past mass media would have provided a smaller range of news and also only provided interest subject but not allowed the people to connect in the way they do today. Political parties are great example of showing how important algorithms on new media platforms can help push for something when manipulated correctly. If a person is radical about their political party their timeline probably displays a lot of positive for their side, a great number of negatives for their opposition and really anything that helps boost their engagement. I know this is true for my feed and would not even consider myself radical. I am not a Donald Trump supporter and I often see great things on my timeline about things he would view negatively, I rarely see others who support Trump on my feed although I am sure I follow them and I know that they post about it, and to an extent I sometimes have to cypher out the fake or exaggerated news on Trump myself. It easy to hate Trump on your own but if someone wanted to be convinced to hate him, algorithm manipulation would be perfect.
Algorithms show us a lot of information to help boost our engagement but at what price are we as an society paying to have a feed so smart, are we aware of what’s real rather than just intriguing, do we get to see the opinions of others that may help change harmful perspectives and are we even aware of just how manipulated our algorithms are so that the output is purposeful. When companies purchase this information from these platforms in terms, they are reaching masses of people and really subconsciously changing perspective of millions. By manipulation of our feed or even can allowing algorithms to think for themselves we see how easy it is to convince via social media. I feel the Tay bot was a perfect example of how our new media today can be manipulated and change society negatively.
