Don't let the baby face fool you. Mr. Zuckerberg is shrewd, savvy and blessed with the most dramatic and optimistic vision for the future of human communication this century. I do not believe that Zuckerberg can fix the problems that surround his platform. He created a monster. The platform has been evolved into a learning A. I. system that learns and changes and has integrated itself into every Facebook account on the planet. In cyber world the philosophical manifest is: What is done cannot be undone. This applies to Facebook.
First let me give a brief rundown on how this works. You are in line at the Grocery store and to kill some time you check out The National Enquirer. The FAKE NEWS headline reads, "Michelle Obama is secretly buying arms while having an affair with Putin.” It’s Bull, yet you cannot help reaching out, picking up the magazine and flipping through to the headline story. And, if you’re feeling lucky you might just buy it. (This is my guilty pleasure I am a lifetime reader although I find $4.99 a bit steep but I don't care).
Facebook works the same way. When Zuckerberg made the decision to take the company public (not the best move) he involved investors and investors care only about money and the goal became to figure out a way to monetize the platform. Facebook had to find a way to quantify how many people clicked on an ad to attract advertising dollars, so the system was re programmed to do that. It’s called CLICK BAIT
The Facebook “Team” then took on the role of driving users to ads. That would be fine if this was being run by thinking humans who can disseminate fact from fiction, but it is not. It is being run by an A.I. system with learning ability. And what did the system learn? It learned that people clicked on the most outrageous unbelievable stories more than news facts.
Then the A.I. deduced that if it sent people to the Fake news stories they could show the advertisers bigger numbers, which would attract more money, and everyone would be happy. More. More. More. And they were.
A.I. does not care if a story is Fake or Real it can only read the story and so the FAKE news stories took center stage and combined with the built-in credibility of Facebook and the trust aura of Mark people began to believe what was FAKE as TRUE.
The problem now is that A.I. melded with the original program over taking it readjusting and evolving into something new. Because of this I don't believe that Mark has any ability to alter the program. Period. It’s like trying to fix the “too-much-salt” you added to a stew. Your attempts only make the entire thing worse.
In Facebook’s case there is a “pick-up sticks effect.” If one thing is removed the entire platform collapses if one thing is added the systems evolution is unpredictable as we just experienced. The only way to stop this is to shut the entire system down or have everyone sign out at the exact same time crash the motherboard and re-program the entire thing. At that point you might as well make a funeral for Facebook and come up with a different company. But “The Investors” will not allow that to happen and so we are set on a precarious and dangerous course, so a few people can make a couple bucks.
The goal of Companies like Facebook and Google and every app on your phone is to function independently from humans. To do this an A.I. system must be integrated. These systems are growing in leaps and bounds without any ethical checks. It is not a good idea to give “boys” lots of money and ask them to make things and turn your back. The mindset is about challenge not consequences and so the challenge of A.I developers is to create them to think like humans. It’s not as far off as you would believe… and it’s messing us up.
ASIDE: Please learn cyber lingo. When Zuckerberg says I am getting back to “My Team,” chances are he is referring to a computer system and not people.
The Senate should have asked to be introduced to “The Team."
Zuckerberg has repeatedly apologized for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, while blaming the information-sharing on a "Researcher" who, according to Facebook, violated the platform's terms of service.
When cyber people use the word “Researcher,” they are also referring to a computer system.
There are other words, like Founder, Staff, Inventor basically titles which we all wrongly assume in the cyber world context are associated with people. So, the next time a “Team” reaches out to answer your question and sends you a smiley face know you are not communicating with a human and don't call the founder because they don't exist in human form either.
ADVICE? Read Wired Magazine,
Below I highlighted the Facebook chain of events
2016
NOVEMBER Donald Trump wins. Zuckerberg says it's "pretty crazy" to think Fake news on Facebook helped tip the election.
DECEMBER Facebook declares war on fake news and hires CNN alum Campbell Brown to shepherd relations with the publishing industry.
2017
SEPTEMBER
Facebook announces that a Russian group paid $100,000 for roughly 3,000 ads aimed at US voters. Oooops!
OCTOBER
It is revealed that posts from six Russian propaganda accounts were shared 340 million times. Double Ooops!
JANUARY
Facebook begins announcing major changes, but they are not sure what.
Mark visits Congress. Apologizes. Comes to terms with the corruption that can exist in his optimistic world vision.
