Yes, and yes. For as much rigor that goes into A/B testing and optimizing against business metrics, companies should be held accountable to counter metrics when it’s abundantly clear that they’re having a negative impact on children, adults, and society at large. Until there’s extrinsic accountability, these organizations will always deprioritize efforts that serve humanity’s and the planet’s best interests if those come at a cost to profit.
Im intregued with the growing thought around seeing our AI and Social media technology, as just another technology, that can create externalities that companies can profit from if not effectively limited and held to be responsible for the full costs. Cigarette smoking is an example of a product with externalities that for a long time the industry succeeded in avoiding responsibity for its costs to the use. Regulation of power production emmissions, car emmisions, dumping residue in to lakes/rives etc. And so its time for us to explore the externaliies of our information technologies and the costs. That might start first with a consumer label indicating that use of the product may result in harm to the user, our communties, up to and including death. (bullying, suicide...). At the same time we’ll need to study the costs of using these systems and begin to sort out what are the true and complete human costs, and then work to control the regulations so that the companies pay their full costs. I’m all for capitalism and mostly a free market, but only up to the point that company’s profits represent the net of the actual cost to society and the user. Currently I think they are getting a free ride on their costs while pocketing the profits from our adication.
Yes, and yes. For as much rigor that goes into A/B testing and optimizing against business metrics, companies should be held accountable to counter metrics when it’s abundantly clear that they’re having a negative impact on children, adults, and society at large. Until there’s extrinsic accountability, these organizations will always deprioritize efforts that serve humanity’s and the planet’s best interests if those come at a cost to profit.
Great article about Survivorship Bias. That sent me down a rabbit hole and has me reflecting. Thanks for that!
Where are the parents?
Im intregued with the growing thought around seeing our AI and Social media technology, as just another technology, that can create externalities that companies can profit from if not effectively limited and held to be responsible for the full costs. Cigarette smoking is an example of a product with externalities that for a long time the industry succeeded in avoiding responsibity for its costs to the use. Regulation of power production emmissions, car emmisions, dumping residue in to lakes/rives etc. And so its time for us to explore the externaliies of our information technologies and the costs. That might start first with a consumer label indicating that use of the product may result in harm to the user, our communties, up to and including death. (bullying, suicide...). At the same time we’ll need to study the costs of using these systems and begin to sort out what are the true and complete human costs, and then work to control the regulations so that the companies pay their full costs. I’m all for capitalism and mostly a free market, but only up to the point that company’s profits represent the net of the actual cost to society and the user. Currently I think they are getting a free ride on their costs while pocketing the profits from our adication.
How about parental responsibility first???