Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: How companies build algorithms using experimentation
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of the crowd...
From Geeking with Greg
It's easy for social media to fill with astroturf
Most underestimate how easy it is for social media to become dominated by astroturf. It's easy. All you need is a few people creating and controlling multiple accounts...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: How some companies get it right
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") How do some companies...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: Table of Contents
(This is the Table of Contents from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Introduction: How...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: Overview from the book proposal
(This is an excerpt from the book proposal for my unpublished book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix ...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: The irresistible lure of an unlocked house
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my unpublished book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Bad incentives...
From Geeking with Greg
A summary of my book
My book is the untold story of the algorithms that shape our lives, how they went terribly wrong, and how to fix them. Most people now have at least a vague idea...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: The problem is fake crowds
(This is an excerpt from my book. Please let me know if you like it and want more.) It is usually unintentional. Companies don’t intend for their websites to fill...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: Mark as spam, the long fight to keep emails and texts useful
(This is an excerpt from my book. Please let me know if you like it and want more.) The first email on the internet was sent in 1971. Back then, the internet...
From Geeking with Greg
Cory Doctorow on enshittification
Another good piece by Cory on enshittification, with details about Facebook, some on how A/B testing optimizes for enshittification, and updated with how Musk's...
From Geeking with Greg
To stop disinformation, stop astroturf
(this is a version of an excerpt from my book, if you like it please let me know) There's a lot of discussion of removing disinformation as censorship lately....
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: The problem is not the algorithm
(This is an excerpt from the draft of my book. Please let me know if you like it and want more of these.) “The Algorithm,” in scare quotes, is an oft-attacked...
From Geeking with Greg
Book excerpt: Metrics chasing engagement
(This is an excerpt from the draft of my book. Please let me know if you like it and want more.) Let’s say you are in charge of building a social media website...
From Geeking with Greg
AI letter signers not worried about doomsday AI
An article in Wired, "A Letter Prompted Talk of AI Doomsday. Many Who Signed Weren't Actually AI Doomers": A significant number of those who signed were, it seems...
From Geeking with Greg
Challenges using LLMs for startups
Someone (not an AI expert) was asking me about applying large language models (LLMs, like ChatGPT) to a particular product. In case it's useful to others, here's...
From Geeking with Greg
Attacking the economics of scams and misinformation
We see so many scams and so much misinformation on the internet because it is profitable. It's cheap to create bogus accounts. It's cheap to use hordes of accounts...
From Geeking with Greg
Optimizing for the wrong thing
Many companies that think of themselves as data-driven underestimate how easy it is for metrics to go terribly wrong. Take a simple example. Imagine an executive...
From Geeking with Greg
Why did wisdom of the crowds fail?
Wisdom of the crowds summarizes the opinions of many people to produce useful results. Wisdom of the crowds algorithms -- like rankers, recommenders, and trending...
From Geeking with Greg
Netflix and their new streaming with ads
I was curious about how well Netflix's new ad-supported plans are doing. There hasn't been a lot of criticial reporting on it, and I'm sure others are wondering...
From Geeking with Greg