<story><title>Algorithms Have Already Gone Rogue</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/tim-oreilly-algorithms-have-already-gone-rogue/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tenaciousDaniel</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s been bothering me, the word &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; is slowly becoming known as this ambiguously scary thing.</text></item><item><author>jordigh</author><text>Is this his new meme-hustling? &amp;quot;Algorithm&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebaffler.com&amp;#x2F;salvos&amp;#x2F;the-meme-hustler&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebaffler.com&amp;#x2F;salvos&amp;#x2F;the-meme-hustler&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve never liked how Tim O&amp;#x27;Reilly frames his discussion around vague terms like &amp;quot;open&amp;quot; which could mean participatory, transparent, available, or any other number of vague, feel-good terms. Now he seems to be calling &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; things like economic models and government policy.&lt;p&gt;These are widely disparate things, but by using vague terms in different contexts, he pushes discussion towards the direction he wants to steer it: in the case of &amp;quot;open&amp;quot;, away from free software. In the case of &amp;quot;Web 2.0&amp;quot;, towards anything that involved crowd participation.&lt;p&gt;With &amp;quot;algorithms&amp;quot;, he seems to be wanting to push the notion that technology is both scary but liberating and we need tech messiahs like Bezos or Musk to bring it under control.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Chaebixi</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s kinda understandable, though.  Whenever the services of Google, Facebook, etc. behave in an inscrutable, nonsensical, or offensive way, they blame it on their &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; (for a recent example, see &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;us-news&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;oct&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;youtube-alters-search-algorithm-over-fake-las-vegas-conspiracy-videos&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;us-news&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;oct&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;youtube-alte...&lt;/a&gt;).  That&amp;#x27;s really the only context where the term &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; surfaces in mainstream discussion.&lt;p&gt;ML has had a lot of successes, but one of its failures has been more unpredictability on the level of individuals and events that people actually experience.</text></comment>
<story><title>Algorithms Have Already Gone Rogue</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/tim-oreilly-algorithms-have-already-gone-rogue/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tenaciousDaniel</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s been bothering me, the word &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; is slowly becoming known as this ambiguously scary thing.</text></item><item><author>jordigh</author><text>Is this his new meme-hustling? &amp;quot;Algorithm&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebaffler.com&amp;#x2F;salvos&amp;#x2F;the-meme-hustler&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebaffler.com&amp;#x2F;salvos&amp;#x2F;the-meme-hustler&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve never liked how Tim O&amp;#x27;Reilly frames his discussion around vague terms like &amp;quot;open&amp;quot; which could mean participatory, transparent, available, or any other number of vague, feel-good terms. Now he seems to be calling &amp;quot;algorithm&amp;quot; things like economic models and government policy.&lt;p&gt;These are widely disparate things, but by using vague terms in different contexts, he pushes discussion towards the direction he wants to steer it: in the case of &amp;quot;open&amp;quot;, away from free software. In the case of &amp;quot;Web 2.0&amp;quot;, towards anything that involved crowd participation.&lt;p&gt;With &amp;quot;algorithms&amp;quot;, he seems to be wanting to push the notion that technology is both scary but liberating and we need tech messiahs like Bezos or Musk to bring it under control.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>KirinDave</author><text>Maybe if humans took responsibility for the algorithms they created and didn&amp;#x27;t shrug and say, &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s the algorithm&amp;quot; then &amp;quot;the algorithm&amp;quot; wouldn&amp;#x27;t be the antagonists in this story.</text></comment>