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AI software that generates ‘rage bait’ developed by Germany’s far-right AfD
(www.irishtimes.com)
This was inevitable and extremely dangerous. Let's consider all the data that's collected about each of us, then think about companies like Palantir, that specializes in big data integration, AI, and analytics. Then think about who runs the company; Alex Karp and Peter Thiel. Both can be considered to hold views that are not in the best interest of society, and with few guardrails to stop them. If anyone is unaware, all the combined data they hold about us can build extremely detailed and accurate psychological profiles of each of us. They can infer whether we own pets, what type of pets and even your pets names. They know whether you're a smoker, they know what political views you hold, they know your race, where you live, how much money you have, what kind of car you drive, whether you're likely to be a drug user or go to church. They know what types of advertising appeals to you and whether you've made a purchase decision based on those ads. They know whether you spend your days inside playing video games or whether you exercise regularly at the gym. They know your sexual orientation and whether you've attended a furry convention. They know what kind of games you play. They know what kind of language incites you to anger or what language steels your resolve. And it's not just these companies that have this insight, it's also governments. And on top of all this, people are easily manipulated. So imagine an entity, government or otherwise, that, for example, wants to harden divisions between the left and right to distract from more important concerns. With the speed of AI and all this data they can lead you down a chosen path. That path could be beneficial to us, if those in power were good and wise leaders who cared about the good of society. But we have few of those. They will most likely be be paths that maintain and grow power structures that benefit the wealthy and powerful. One of our best defenses is to slow down and be critical thinkers, to not rush to judgement and allow our cognitive biases to rule us. To see past the chaos around us and be ever diligent and aware. That's going to be nearly an impossible task for most of us, but we must try