An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine

Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by chiefalchemist on Sunday February 10, 2019 @02:49PM (#19129594)

I believe you raise a fair point. That is, plenty of humans have plenty of habits. We are, as they say, creatures of habit. The difference now, is the online habit is easy to identify, as well as self perpetual when we interact with others.

Even email can be habitual. Stop sending them and - sans spam and newletters - you stop getting emails.

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Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by chrisco255 on Sunday February 10, 2019 @03:12PM (#19129710)

Yeah, people were addicted to cable television too and some spent inordinate amount of hours in front of the boob tube. Is YouTube fundamentally different? Because it's able to serve more specific content to users? Maybe. Maybe some are prone to addiction regardless.

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Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by setr on Sunday February 10, 2019 @03:30PM (#19129819)

The big threat is that if ML/AI works out, they’ll become far more efficient at it than ever before. That is, we’re following a trend/path that as a society we probably shouldn’t

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Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by chiefalchemist on Sunday February 10, 2019 @05:03PM (#19130376)

If ML / AI works out The Matrix will be soon to follow. It's going to be a lot easier to keep the masses happy (and passive) is they're immersed in VR.

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Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by chiefalchemist on Sunday February 10, 2019 @05:01PM (#19130360)

I think the difference is the primary device of content consumption. There were TV addicts who never left the house. Now there are internet addicts and they walk - and drive - and work among us.

It's too easy to be addict today.

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