{"id":7715,"date":"2022-11-06T10:39:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T09:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/06\/machine-learning-systems-are-problematic-thats-why-tech-bosses-call-them-ai-john-naughton\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T10:39:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T09:39:14","slug":"machine-learning-systems-are-problematic-thats-why-tech-bosses-call-them-ai-john-naughton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/06\/machine-learning-systems-are-problematic-thats-why-tech-bosses-call-them-ai-john-naughton\/","title":{"rendered":"Machine-learning systems are problematic. That\u2019s why tech bosses call them \u2018AI\u2019 | John Naughton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pretending that opaque, error-prone ML is part of the grand, romantic quest to find artificial intelligence is an attempt to distract us from the truth<\/p>\n

One of the most useful texts for anyone covering the tech industry is George Orwell\u2019s celebrated essay, Politics and the English Language<\/a>. Orwell\u2019s focus in the essay was on political use of the language to, as he put it, \u201cmake lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind\u201d. But the analysis can also be applied to the ways in which contemporary corporations bend the language to distract attention from the sordid realities of what they are up to.<\/p>\n

The tech industry has been particularly adept at this kind of linguistic engineering. \u201cSharing\u201d, for example, is clicking on a link to leave a data trail that can be used to refine the profile the company maintains about you. You give your \u201cconsent\u201d to a one-sided proposition: agree to these terms or get lost. Content is \u201cmoderated\u201d, not censored. Advertisers \u201creach out\u201d to you with unsolicited messages. Employees who are fired are \u201clet go\u201d. Defective products are \u201crecalled\u201d. And so on.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nPretending that opaque, error-prone ML is part of the grand, romantic quest to find artificial intelligence is an attempt to distract us from the truth
\nOne of the most useful texts for anyone covering the tech industry is George Orwell\u2019s celebrated essay, Politics and the English Language. Orwell\u2019s focus in the essay was on political use of the language to, as he put it, \u201cmake lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind\u201d. But the analysis can also be applied to the ways in which contemporary corporations bend the language to distract attention from the sordid realities of what they are up to.
\nThe tech industry has been particularly adept at this kind of linguistic engineering. \u201cSharing\u201d, for example, is clicking on a link to leave a data trail that can be used to refine the profile the company maintains about you. You give your \u201cconsent\u201d to a one-sided proposition: agree to these terms or get lost. Content is \u201cmoderated\u201d, not censored. Advertisers \u201creach out\u201d to you with unsolicited messages. Employees who are fired are \u201clet go\u201d. Defective products are \u201crecalled\u201d. And so on. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pretending that opaque, error-prone ML is part of the grand, romantic quest to find artificial intelligence is an attempt to distract us from the truth One of the most useful texts for anyone covering the tech industry is George Orwell\u2019s celebrated essay, Politics and the English Language. Orwell\u2019s focus in the essay was on political …<\/p>\n

Machine-learning systems are problematic. That\u2019s why tech bosses call them \u2018AI\u2019 | John Naughton<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}