The Algorithm Method
“Algorithms are old—around 300 B.C., Euclid invented one for finding the greatest common divisor of two integers. They are, essentially, mathematical procedures for solving problems. We use them to coördinate physical things (like elevators) and bureaucratic things (like medical residencies). Did it make sense to treat unclaimed time as a problem? We’ve solved it algorithmically, and now have none.” Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker on how algorithms changed our daily rhythms, and how the AI chat programs that are replacing them could change everything. A.I. Is Coming for Culture. “The messages around us are changing, even writing themselves. From a certain angle, they seem to be silencing some of the algorithmically inflected human voices that have sought to influence and control us for the past couple of decades.”
+ “There are two main ways to understand what is happening here. One is the idea that the world’s most powerful tech companies are bending toward the current ruling political class in America, casting their own missions in terms that they believe will be favorable to MAGA Republicans, generally, and Donald Trump, specifically, to avoid regulation and further enrich themselves. The other way to understand this moment is to see that the world’s most powerful tech companies are now producing dramatic innovation that, in an earlier era, would be solely under the purview of the U.S. government, and they recognize the responsibility they have to the world’s citizens. The truth of what’s happening is somewhere in the middle.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Do AI Companies Actually Care About America?
+ There’s actually another way to understand what’s happening here. AI is a really cool and powerful technology. It also comes with many risks. Those risks are unlikely to be mitigated or even addressed because the big money behind the AI boom is actually interested in one thing, and it’s not America, it’s not Trump, and it’s definitely not you. Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections. “One of its goals is to push back against a movement backed by some other tech titans that focuses on regulating AI models before they get too powerful and create catastrophic risks for society.”
