Home
> Uncategorized > Bloomberg View!
Bloomberg View!
January 24, 2017
Great news! I’m now a Bloomberg View columnist. My first column came out this morning, and it’s called If Fake News Fools You, It Can Fool Robots, Too. Please take a look and tell me what you think!
Categories: Uncategorized
mathbabe 
I found the article sensible and well-written…I wish I could say the same about the commentary at this point.
You know, you should write a book about algorithms and how destructive they can be if they are followed blindly…:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice! Great first story.
I would argue that crowd sourcing breaks down depending on the crowd. There are plenty of people who believe that 9/11 was a Zionist conspiracy. Or who believe that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is real.
LikeLike
Good sensible article, easy to understand your logic. As a constructive criticism, I worry about sounding as if these problems are impossible (shucks them machines cain’t do what real people, white people, men, can do.) vs. recognizing that this problem is much more complex than we think (e.g. because of the bad “teaching” material like fake news).
Over the years I’ve read and heard too many robots will never do x.
Some examples
1971 – indexing, (by the head of the NYT indexing service)
1985 – chess (New Yorker)
1993 – continuous online backup of PC hard drives (like Carbonite does)
1996 – online shopping (people will never give out credit card information – like they do to waiters)
Congrats on the new job. Ask them for an RSS feed or please post the link to each article here.
LikeLike
Good piece. I learned something new I never considered before. Robots with AI that are programed to learn just like us humans as we grow from child to adult, can grow up to be just as damaged and messed up as humans. That alone sends a chilling warning that maybe Artificially Intelligent machines that are designed to learn on their own like us mortal flesh and blood bots shouldn’t be allowed to exist. We have enough problems in the world as it is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations! I am really excited that you will reach a wider audience (but now I need to check two places, plus Slate Money to catch all of your wisdom).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations. Thank you for your well thought through argument. Indeed, each us has to employ critical thinking when it comes to news and info (usually, the simple heuristic of ‘follow the money” works). There is way too much trust in Facebook and Google in presenting the ‘right’ info. We need to push Facebook to disclose data about what (and how!) stories are promoted and demoted; how exactly users can make their data and preferences portable. We need to ‘orcaa’ Facebook! Thank you again, Cathy.
LikeLike
Just started reading Weapons of Math Destruction a couple of days ago. Had a thought this morning after reading it, the FiveThirtyEight Newsletter, and this post: the combination of opinion polls and media, especially news media, are a feedback loop – a WMD! Having worked in the media for more than 25 years, I welcome you to our world and I hope you can help break that feedback loop, rather than feed it.
LikeLike
this is well done, the tricky part is always trying to find a way to make complex issues easy enough for lay folks to grasp without losing the cutting aspects of the matter at hand and this was a good start, congrats on the gig and thanks for making these matters public.
LikeLike
Congrats!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
Congrats – great article, important topic
LikeLike