Misinformation and disinformation are the biggest problems on the internet. To solve a problem, you need to understand the problem. In Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It , I claim that the problem is not that misinformation exists, but that so many people see it. I explain why algorithms amplify scams and propaganda, how it easily can…
(This is one version of the conclusion from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of crowds is the idea that summarizing the opinions of a lot of people often is very useful. Computers can do this too. Wisdom of the crowd algorithms operating at a massive scale pick everything we see when we use the internet. Computer…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Everyone wins -- companies, consumers, and society -- if companies fix their algorithms to stop amplifying scams and misinformation. Executives are often tempted to reward their teams for simpler success metrics like engagement. But companies make more money…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Adversaries manipulate wisdom of crowds algorithms by controlling a crowd of accounts. Their controlled accounts can then coordinate to shill whatever they like, shout down opposing views, and create an overwhelming flood of propaganda that makes it hard for…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of the crowd algorithms, including rankers and recommenders, work from data about what people like and do. Teams inside tech companies gather user behavior data then tune and optimize algorithms to maximize measurable targets. The data quality and team…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Twenty five years ago, when recommendation algorithms first launched at large scale on the internet, these algorithms helped people discover new books to read and new movies to watch. In recent years, wisdom of the crowds failed the internet, and the internet…
(This is an excerpt from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It". The first sentence and first page of a book hook readers in. This book starts with an entertaining tale about algorithms and their importance at the beginning of Amazon.com) The old brick building for Amazon headquarters in 1997 was in a grimy part of downtown Seattle…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of the crowds is the idea that combining the opinions of a lot of people will often get a very useful result, usually one that is better and more accurate than almost all of the opinions on their own. Wisdom of the trustworthy is the same idea, just…
(This is a long excerpt about manipulation of algorithms by adversaries from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Inauthentic activity is designed to manipulate social media. It exists because there is a strong incentive to manipulate wisdom of the crowd algorithms. If someone can get recommended by algorithms, they can get a lot…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of the crowds is the epiphany that combining many people's opinions is useful, often more useful than expert opinions. Customer reviews summarize what thousands of people think of movies, books, and everything else you might want to buy. Customer…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") “The systems are phenomenally easy to game,” explained Stanford Internet Observatory’s Renee DiResta. The fundamental idea behind the algorithms used by social media is that “popular content, as defined by the crowd” should rise to the top. But “the crowd…
(This is an excerpt from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Bonuses are a powerful incentive. Technology companies are using them more than ever. Most technology companies cap salaries and instead use bonuses and stock grants as most of their compensation for employees. These bonuses are often tied to key metrics. For example,…
For decades, the focus in machine learning has been big data. More data beats better algorithms, said an early 2001 result from Banko and Brill at Microsoft Research. This was hugely influential on the ML community. For years, most people found it was roughly true that if you get more data, ML works better. Those days have come to an end. Nowadays, big data often is worse. This is because low…
(This is an excerpt from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Amazon is the place people shop online. Over 40% of all US e-commerce spending was on Amazon.com in recent years. Amazon also is the place for retailers to list their products for sale. Roughly 25% of all US e-commerce spending recently was third-party marketplace…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Incentives matter. “As long as your goal is creating more engagement,” said former Facebook data scientist Francis Haugen in a 60 Minutes interview, “you’re going to continue prioritizing polarizing, hateful content.” Teams inside of the tech companies…
Tim O'Reilly, Mariana Mazzucato, and Ilan Strauss have three working papers focusing on Amazon's ability to extract unusual profits from its customers nowadays. The papers are: Algorithmic Attention Rents: A theory of digital platform market power Amazon’s Algorithmic Rents: The economics of information on Amazon Behind the Clicks: Can Amazon allocate user attention as it pleases? The core idea in…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") The problem is people. These algorithms are built, tuned, and optimized by people. The incentives people have determine what these algorithms do. If what wins A/B tests is what gets the most clicks, people will optimize the algorithms to get more clicks. If a…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Wisdom of the crowd algorithms shape what people see on the internet. Constant online experimentation shapes what wisdom of the crowd algorithms do. Wisdom of crowds is the idea that summarizing the opinions of lots of independent people is often useful. Many…
Most underestimate how easy it is for social media to become dominated by astroturf. It's easy. All you need is a few people creating and controlling multiple accounts. Here's an example. Let's say you have 100M real people using your social media site. On average, most post or comment infrequently, once every 10 days. That looks like real social media activity from real people. Most people lurk,…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") How do some companies fix their algorithms? In the last decade, wisdom of the crowds broke, corrupted by bad actors. But some found fixes that let them still use wisdom of the crowds. Why was Wikipedia resilient to spammers and shills when Facebook and…
(This is the Table of Contents from my book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Introduction: How good algorithms became a fountain of scams, shills, and disinformation — and what to do about it Part I: The golden age of wisdom of crowds algorithms Chapter 1: The rise of helpful algorithms Chapter 2: How companies build algorithms using…
(This is an excerpt from the book proposal for my unpublished book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Without most of us even realizing it, algorithms determine what we see everyday on the internet. Computer programs pick which videos you’ll watch next on TikTok and YouTube. When you go to Facebook and Twitter, algorithms pick which…
(This is an excerpt from drafts of my unpublished book, "Algorithms and Misinformation: Why Wisdom of the Crowds Failed the Internet and How to Fix It") Bad incentives and bad metrics create an opportunity. They are what allow bad guys to come in and take root. Scammers and propagandists can take advantage of poorly optimized algorithms to make algorithms promote whatever misinformation they like.…
My book is the untold story of the algorithms that shape our lives, how they went terribly wrong, and how to fix them. Most people now have at least a vague idea that algorithms choose what we see on our favorite online platforms. On Amazon they recommend millions of products. On Facebook they predict whether we’re more likely to click on a cute animal video or a rant about Donald Trump. At…
(This is an excerpt from my book. Please let me know if you like it and want more.) It is usually unintentional. Companies don’t intend for their websites to fill with spam. Companies don’t intend for their algorithms to amplify propagandists, shills, and scammers. It can happen just from overlooking the problem then build up over time. Bad actors come in, the problem grows and grows, and…