As 2024 finishes its dismal performance, I don’t have any special message for this festive season other than to enjoy your holidaze and remember those in need. Oh, and to have the best 2025 you can possibly have under the circumstances. But before I get into this month’s topic, here’s a bit book talk about my recent novel Her Own Devices and its prequel, Turkey Shoot.
I stopped by the Belmont (MA) Media Center last month to tape an interview on its Author Spotlight show. The show’s host, Ann-Marie Mahoney, was kind enough to speak with me even though I no longer live in Belmont after I explained that both my novels were written there. Cheers also to producer Joanna Tzouvelis for producing the shoot.
About Devices, a recent reviewer wrote, “Five stars. The novel masterfully blends heart-pounding suspense with a heartfelt story of loss, motherhood, and justice. … Her Own Devices is a fascinating and thought-provoking novel that I thoroughly enjoyed!”
You can buy the book at my bookstore. Barnes & Noble and Amazon also carry an eBook edition. I welcome reviews there and on Goodreads. Either book would make a dandy gift for anyone who enjoys topical literary fiction.
Anyway, I digress. Here are some thoughts on reputation and social control in the AI Age that might interest you.
We all have our credit scores, which you can monitor once a year for free, or more frequently by paying Experian, Eqifax, and Transunion. You can also track your credit rating (from 0 to 850, as if it were your College Boards), computed by FICO (née Fair Isaac), and other private agencies based on your financial history, especially with regard to debt. My bank and credit union provide credit scores to me. Mine are high, thanks to paying bills on time. Credit-worthiness is part of what I’m talking about, but there’s much more.
More generally, it’s called Social Credit and it’s being gradually applied to all residents of China, ostensibly to raise the level of trust in Chinese society. (For a more nuanced view, see this article in Technology Review.) It started with a focus on fraud, tax evasion, and debt repayments by businesses and financial institutions several decades ago. Various local experiments were authorized, some of which expanded to include individuals, but the Party deemed none of these privately-sponsored programs worthy of being expanded across China. Some programs publicly blacklisted people and companies who failed to repay debts or court-ordered penalties, which was found to enhance compliance. Notice that’s not coercion of the sort, “Nice little business you got there; it would be a shame if something happened to it.” It’s more like having your peccadilloes exposed in a tabloid, all in the name of cultivating trust.
You’ve got social credits if you’ve enrolled in “loyalty” programs, like frequent flyer miles or hotel perks. Outside of travel and hospitality, Amazon Prime is a good example, as are premium subscriptions to Spotify, Netflix, and various online publications. They woo but don’t coerce you to sign up, either for free or for a fee. Instead, they note your preferences and nudge you into following a brand in hopes of influencing your consumption and attitudes.
Sociologist Vance Packard first popularized how what I call watchbirding arose in marketing consumer goods and political candidates in The Hidden Persuaders (1957, available online). Those efforts were based mostly on survey data. Now there are busybodies everywhere you go; you carry them with you in your phone and feed them gossip from your browser.
Clearly, the concept of social credit isn’t new; it’s a gloss on reputation that has been quantified and pervasively deployed by those who would use it to influence one’s choices and decisions. And their tools have grown evermore powerful and effective. Unless you outfit your browser with an ad blocker (I use uBlock Origin), you can’t avoid online ads, customized just for you. The “ad networks” behind that capability made Google rich once it stopped not being evil.
Already, AI is estimating individuals’ social credits. As I recently wrote, it’s likely that all your social media activity is being used to train one AI or another to develop profiles. And while AIs don’t have feelings of their own, they’re fairly adept at inferring how humans feel about this or that, even from photos and videos, for commercial purposes. Any government could do the same for other purposes.
All of this is narrated in terrifying detail by Yuval Noah Harari in his newest book Nexus. Much of it is about AI (which he terms Alien Intelligence because it’s not human). But it covers a lot ground as it relates ways in which computer networks, algorithms, and databases influence how human societies — both authoritarian and democratic ones — function and dysfunction.
Harari has faith that organized pressure on tech giants and governments can forestall ceding human agency to computer networks governed by AIs, and says it is urgent to take a stand:
We command immense power and enjoy rare luxuries, but we are easily manipulated by our own creations, and by the time we wake up to the danger, it might be too late. (p. 403)
And then takes it to the next level:
… As far as we know, apes, rats and other organic animals of planet Earth may be the only conscious entities in the entire universe. We have now created a nonconscious but very powerful alien intelligence. If we mishandle it, AI might not only extinguish the human domination of Earth but the light of consciousness itself, turning the universe into a realm of darkness. It is our responsibility to prevent this. (p. 403)
This, to me, is a rhetorical stretch; I cannot accept the premise that there is no intelligent life out there. The astronomical odds favor it, even if we only consider earth-like planets. If we destroy consciousness here — which we’re well on our way to doing with no help from AIs — I’m sure the spark of consciousness will continue to ignite and flourish across the universe, and Earth will be just another failed experiment.
This is not to say that Nexus isn’t worth reading; in it, you will find stories about how emerging technologies, social networks, empires, and democracies have affected human affairs throughout history that may be new to you. And if you worry about being in tech’s grip, as I do, the least you can do is keep a watchful eye on those who would watch, seduce, and manipulate you for their benefit.
I just took a small step in that direction following Musk’s hostile takeover of Twitter. I flew over to Bluesky, designed by Twitter’s founders in response to its corruption. Say hi sometime to @americanauthor.bsky.social and maybe join the fun there.
|
You can find this and previous Perfidy Press Provocations in our newsletter archive. Should you see any you like, please consider forwarding this or links to others to people who might like to subscribe, and thanks. |
And, if you must, you can unsubscribe here.
Be First to Comment