Monday, March 4, 2019

The tragic case of Molly Russell has highlighted their malign influence

My eye was caught by a headline in Wired magazine: “When algorithms think you want to die”. Below it was an article by two academic researchers, Ysabel Gerrard and Tarleton Gillespie, about the “recommendation engines” that are a central feature of social media and e-commerce sites.

Everyone who uses the web is familiar with these engines. A recommendation algorithm is what prompts Amazon to tell me that since I’ve bought Custodians of the Internet, Gillespie’s excellent book on the moderation of online content, I might also be interested in Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism and a host of other books about algorithmic power and bias. In that particular case, the algorithm’s guess is accurate and helpful: it informs me about stuff that I should have known about but hadn’t.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VAYQfJ

Related Posts:

  • LATEST NEWSA federal judge in Montana on Wednesday ordered the U.S. State Department to do a full environmental review of a revised route for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, a move that could delay the project and prove a setback fo… Read More
  • LATEST NEWSMore than 300 U.S. newspapers have pledged to run editorials on Thursday defending freedom of the press in response to President Donald Trump calling some media organizations enemies of the American people. from Reuters:… Read More
  • LATEST NEWSU.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities will set up a joint team based in Chicago targeting the leaders and finances of drug cartels that ship opioids into the United States, aiming to stanch a spike in overdose deaths, … Read More
  • LATEST NEWSAsian shares pulled away from one-year lows on Thursday, after Beijing said it will hold trade talks with Washington this month, although Turkey's currency crisis and fears of an economic slowdown in China kept most markets i… Read More
  • LATEST NEWSThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sent subpoenas to Tesla Inc regarding Chief Executive Elon Musk's plan to take the company private and his statement that funding was "secured," Fox Business Network reported on… Read More

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Popular Posts

FOLLOW BY EMAIL

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner