Unvermögen

Web 2.0 and Algorithmic Bias Have you ever noticed that the news — and your YouTube homepage — are becoming more skewed toward the edges? The volume has gone up, but the substance has gone down. Well: a. You're not crazy b. Many people agree with you c. The data supports this phenomenon The immediate question then is: why is this happening? If your answer is “algorithms,” you're not alone. Algorithms are blamed for everything bad about the internet — and often the world. But why are algorithms bad? Is math fundamentally evil? Or are the people designing and tuning algorithms evil? To answer that, we need two things: high-school algebra and basic neuroscience. 1. High School Algebra Let’s say I own a website or an app that makes money from advertising. My obvious goal is to maximize ad revenue. That is my goal Y. To maximize Y, I need to make sure ads are: viewed (CPM) clicked (CPC) and that users spend time on the platform That is my derived goal y. To maximize Y, I must maximi...

  This morning I woke up to a particularly strange news article. The Spanish government slammed the door on U.S. requests to use their airbases. They didn’t just say 'not now'; they effectively evicted U.S. operations from their soil and skies. The Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles went a step further, describing the US/Israel <> Iran conflict as " profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust. ” The reaction of Spain was perhaps the most vocal, but they are not alone. France recently blocked aircraft carrying military supplies to Israel from using its airspace. Italy denied permission for U.S. military aircraft (specifically bombers) to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily. While Turkey continues to host U.S. forces at İncirlik Air Base, the Turkish Foreign Ministry recently dismissed claims that they would allow the stationing of aerial refueling aircraft for the Iran war, calling such reports "unserious." For decades, the alliance was built on a s...