Deploying algorithms to maximize user engagement is how Big Tech firms maximize shareholder value, with short-term profits often overriding longer-term business objectives. Now that AI is poised to supercharge the platform economy, new rules and governance structures are urgently needed to safeguard the public.
LONDON – In a new lawsuit in the United States against Meta, 41 states and the District of Columbia argue that two of the company’s social-media products – Instagram and Facebook – are not just addictive but detrimental to children’s well-being. Meta is accused of engaging in a “scheme to exploit young users for profit,” including by showing harmful content that keeps them glued to their screens.
According to one recent poll, 17-year-olds in the US spend 5.8 hours per day on social media. How did it come to this? The answer, in a word, is “engagement.”
Deploying algorithms to maximize user engagement is how Big Tech maximizes shareholder value, with short-term profits often overriding longer-term business objectives, not to mention societal health. As the data scientist Greg Linden puts it, algorithms built on “bad metrics” foster “bad incentives” and enable “bad actors.”
LONDON – In a new lawsuit in the United States against Meta, 41 states and the District of Columbia argue that two of the company’s social-media products – Instagram and Facebook – are not just addictive but detrimental to children’s well-being. Meta is accused of engaging in a “scheme to exploit young users for profit,” including by showing harmful content that keeps them glued to their screens.
According to one recent poll, 17-year-olds in the US spend 5.8 hours per day on social media. How did it come to this? The answer, in a word, is “engagement.”
Deploying algorithms to maximize user engagement is how Big Tech maximizes shareholder value, with short-term profits often overriding longer-term business objectives, not to mention societal health. As the data scientist Greg Linden puts it, algorithms built on “bad metrics” foster “bad incentives” and enable “bad actors.”