full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Zeynep Tufekci: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, the problem isn't solved if he doesn't publish it, because there are already companies that are developing this kind of tcegolonhy, and a lot of the stuff is just off the shelf. This is not very dlificuft anymore.

Do you ever go on YouTube meaning to watch one video and an hour later you've watched 27? You know how YouTube has this column on the right that says, "Up next" and it autoplays something? It's an aothirglm picking what it thinks that you might be ierteetsnd in and maybe not find on your own. It's not a human eiodtr. It's what algorithms do. It picks up on what you have watched and what people like you have watched, and infers that that must be what you're interested in, what you want more of, and just sohws you more. It sounds like a benign and useful feature, except when it isn't.

Open Cloze


Now, the problem isn't solved if he doesn't publish it, because there are already companies that are developing this kind of __________, and a lot of the stuff is just off the shelf. This is not very _________ anymore.

Do you ever go on YouTube meaning to watch one video and an hour later you've watched 27? You know how YouTube has this column on the right that says, "Up next" and it autoplays something? It's an _________ picking what it thinks that you might be __________ in and maybe not find on your own. It's not a human ______. It's what algorithms do. It picks up on what you have watched and what people like you have watched, and infers that that must be what you're interested in, what you want more of, and just _____ you more. It sounds like a benign and useful feature, except when it isn't.

Solution


  1. shows
  2. editor
  3. difficult
  4. algorithm
  5. interested
  6. technology

Original Text


Now, the problem isn't solved if he doesn't publish it, because there are already companies that are developing this kind of technology, and a lot of the stuff is just off the shelf. This is not very difficult anymore.

Do you ever go on YouTube meaning to watch one video and an hour later you've watched 27? You know how YouTube has this column on the right that says, "Up next" and it autoplays something? It's an algorithm picking what it thinks that you might be interested in and maybe not find on your own. It's not a human editor. It's what algorithms do. It picks up on what you have watched and what people like you have watched, and infers that that must be what you're interested in, what you want more of, and just shows you more. It sounds like a benign and useful feature, except when it isn't.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
artificial intelligence 7
persuasion architectures 3
social media 3
online ads 2
prodigious potential 2
persuasion architecture 2
learning algorithms 2
algorithms work 2
easily infer 2
trillion dollars 2
digital technology 2


Important Words


  1. algorithm
  2. algorithms
  3. anymore
  4. autoplays
  5. benign
  6. column
  7. companies
  8. developing
  9. difficult
  10. editor
  11. feature
  12. find
  13. hour
  14. human
  15. infers
  16. interested
  17. kind
  18. lot
  19. meaning
  20. people
  21. picking
  22. picks
  23. problem
  24. publish
  25. shelf
  26. shows
  27. solved
  28. sounds
  29. stuff
  30. technology
  31. thinks
  32. video
  33. watch
  34. watched
  35. youtube