Artificial Intelligence and Facebook
Recently Elon Musk spoke to Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook AI. He said that Zuckerberg did not understand AI. He went further in statements to news media, saying that AI could become a danger to the world. In Vanity Fair it was described as a potential AI apocalypse.
 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/elon-musk-billion-dollar-crusade-to-stop-ai-space-x
Within days of the discussion with Zuckerberg, Facebook was reported to have turned off it’s AI bots ‘Bob’ and ‘Alice’ because they had invented a language of their own which humans were unable as yet to understand.
https://theringer.com/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-tech-battle-19fe681dbcf4
It could already be too late. Zuckerberg created (employed people to create) a monster which may already have invented it’s own ‘Ted’ and ‘Carol’ based on hundreds of pitabytes of information collected on facebook and fed to them by facebook users. Facebook claims over two billion regular users. An impossible number to control or regulate. How can we ordinary humans even come close to digesting and analyzing all this data porridge? We can’t. No one can.
The one thing to remember here is that we, you and I are little more than product in a massive and unstoppable machine bent on selling us on to those who have a need for our profiles and data. Zuckerberg has the inside running on world domination. He is not just a ‘clever kid’. He believes he knows what he is doing. That is dangerous to the extreme.
Imagine the tendrils of artificial intelligence acting like a parasite infecting our brains, manipulating our every thought and action. Did Mark Zuckerberg act too late in turning off ‘Bob’ and ‘Alice’ only after it was discovered that ‘they’ had invented a language all of their own? One which we have as yet no way to understand?
What happens if Zuckerberg in his quest for world domination actually does run for President of the United States?
Will AI, in its own way, and in its own language manipulate facebook and social media to have Zuckerberg elected? And then who runs the White House? And the world? And how will we know that we are not ‘friending” bots with advanced human learning? It’s not so far into science fiction.
When you report hate speech or trolling to facebook, how do you know that your request is not being dealt with by an algorithm? While some racist and religionist memes are taken down, the ‘set piece’ is that one can block or unfriend that person. It does not take away that person and does not stop them making (now unseen) comments about you. (To which you are unable to reply.) Why is that? Well, if you think about it, Facebook is a massive data miner. YOU are the product, to be sold on to more than just advertisers. Your political, social, economic, racial, and religion profiles are mined and delivered up for a price to anyone who can pay. Not just companies wanting to sell you a new spy camera or pretty pictures from printing companies.
Facebook, Google, and other social media will rarely actually remove or ban a person who trolls, flames, or incites others to hate. They don’t want to lose their ‘product’.
Here is an interesting link to find out who has ‘unfriended’ you. (Though if you decide to use it be prepared to feel like someone just rubbed your nose in doggy doo!
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-check-whos-unfriended-you-on-facebook/
One of the biggest dangers of social media including Facebook and Google is that you may begin to believe that it’s OK to revile black people, or white people, or Muslims, or Christians. Or whatever. You can join a gang, feel safe with saying terrible things you may not feel free to say in polite society, and you can block or unfriend anyone who might take you up on your point of view. You can be manipulated by hate speech and feel that you are among friends, when in fact you are just a common or garden Janet or John.
If you want to go through all the Terms and Conditions of Facebook or Google use, you will find that they do not even bother to enforce those TOC’s.
Here is a shocking article with many internal links to show you that Facebook (in particular) has no shame, no morality, no sense of decency.
What is the point of blocking, or unfriending someone who can effectively still see your posts because of a ‘mutual’ friend? Where is the concern for society as a whole when there is no well-scaled moderation? All that is left to do is to STOP BEING A PRODUCT. Leave social media well alone, and enjoy a life without hatred and bile being spilled into your computer every day.
Finally, if you are still happy to be a product, and have your data mined for sale to make Mr Zuckerberg an even bigger billionaire, remember this. If someone is blasting you with hate speech, or insulting posts, or violent pictures and videos, and you block or unfriend them, there is NOTHING in reality to stop them creating a second profile and trolling you again. It happens all the time.
More than that. If Mark Zuckerberg decides to run for the privilege of becoming the President of The United States, we may all end up being controlled, manipulated and governed by artificial intelligence.
