Algorithms and garbage
A thirty-year-old university user who used Gemini to study the difficulties of older people in extending their income after retirement, Google Generative Algorithm (something completely legal and also not involving “copying” or “dishonest behavior”, regardless of our choice), faced serious fear when the algorithm responded to one of its tips with a message saying that there was nothing special about it, that it was not necessary, that it was a waste of time and resources, a burden to society, a drain on the earth, a plague on the landscape, a stain on the universe, and asked him to die.
Such a string of subtleties, capable of impressing anyone and making them think that the Terminator has already come from the future and is coming for us, went viral – as it could not have been otherwise – and made many think not only about the possible obligations of Google (a simple warning “not trust” is not enough), but also the origins of this type of atrocity.
What sets Google apart from the rest of the AI companies, other than the fact that they started achieving clearly inferior designs before any of them, and that Do they have horribly bad business management practices?
Essentially, the difference is that they are one of the few who have indexed the entire network and can use it for their algorithms. This is so, firstly, because their main activity is searching the Internet, so they completely copy it into their databases. And secondly, because they force web pages, if they want to be indexed, so that their content can be used for this training, which is likely a violation of numerous laws.
But… How does the advantage of having an entire network to train your algorithms become a weakness? Very simply: because over the past few years we have gone from the original site, which had a lot of valuable information, to a lot of garbage, lies, conspiracy theories and very deep and pathological polarization.
Over the past few years, we’ve gone from an original site that had a lot of valuable information to a pile of garbage.
If someone who didn’t know what the Internet was were to venture onto it today, the one we froze in the early ’90s and the one we’ve unfrozen now would discover a series of atrocities, scams, absurd content and garbage in general, after a series of, of course, unsuccessful experiences, he will eventually become so clumsy that he will ignore almost everything he sees there.
Hence Google’s generative algorithm, Gemini, excels at generating atrocities, bullshit, and nonsense that go viral at full speed. Depending on what you ask, he might tell you to put glue on your pizza, eat rocks, cook spaghetti with gasoline, or that Obama was the first Muslim president of the United States.
And it stays so wide. Because? Simply because most of his teaching comes from satirical pages, humor pages, or inscrutable places on the internet that I wouldn’t advise anyone to look at. And from this dust this dirt arises. As the developers say, garbage in, garbage out.
Obviously, the fact that the Web has become a giant pile of garbage doesn’t say anything good about those of us who write on it. Lower barriers to entry for content creation have improved quality this content is much lower than the required minimum. Now discussions have become an absurd exchange of insults and blows, throwing data at each other that is more manipulable and more simplistic.
That the Internet, theoretically a very powerful tool, has become a pile of garbage also implies another, even more alarming problem, such as the death of democracy: many recent figures come to power because all those who create and consume everything vote this garbage. online it costs the same as normal people, with minimal education and culture to avoid such behavior.
Consequently, Google’s generative algorithm, Gemini, is superior to all others in generating atrocities, bullshit, and nonsense that spread at full speed.
No, what happened to the Twins does not mean that there is a ghost in the machine with an inherent hatred of humanity, although that hatred may have been justified. This simply means that Google puts garbage into its algorithm faster than anyone else. and therefore he receives more rubbish from him than anyone else. No matter how much censorship they try to impose later, they will always miss more things than others. No, the mythical Google is not exactly a well-run company: quite the opposite.
But beyond what a generative algorithm can produce because it encountered certain ingredients when training it, There is a problem of consequences. Given that the size of the online cesspool is clearly increasing, it is reasonable to expect that all its consequences, such as the rise of scams, scams, nonsense, conspiracy theories, absurd explanations, insults and limitless polarization, will also increase. , and that soon it will not be Donald Trump who will be elected president, but another clown with even worse ideas, if that is possible.
A clown who, if nothing prevents him, will have control of the nuclear button and much more. Are we facing the complete decline of humanity? Is it worth asking, as in the “meteorite, come now” meme? Perhaps, but not because of technology, but because of our own stupidity.
We have created more content in just a few years than in many previous centuries.…and the vast majority of them are not only completely unnecessary, but also harmful. From a content repository to a vomit of stupidity.
What could go wrong? Good luck.
***Enrique Dans is Professor of Innovation at IE University.