A tech ethicist on how AI worsens ills caused by social media
The only cure is to impose change on AI firms’ incentives, argues Tristan Harris
AS SOCIAL-MEDIA platforms gained dominance over the past decade, society was transformed. In its early days, that transformation was billed as an unprecedented good by social-media companies including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—they were, after all, connecting the world as never before. Twitter’s tagline in 2014 was the succinct and bright “What’s Happening?” Instagram’s was “Capture and Share the World’s Moments.” Facebook’s login page declared that “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”
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