Althouse: "TikTok has no interest in your friends. Instead, it has developed an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that divines your desires..."

May 14, 2022

"TikTok has no interest in your friends. Instead, it has developed an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that divines your desires..."

"... by interpreting the most subtle of clues. They range from how long you watch a video to whether you share it, and what the content contains.... In 2020, TikTok raced past Facebook and Instagram in terms of how much time users spend on the platform. This year it is set to overtake YouTube.... Mark Zuckerberg this month announced a monumental shift in how the core Facebook and Instagram experiences will function, moving away from the social graph and investing heavily in an AI-powered recommendation engine that will serve up the most viral posts from across its network — just like TikTok.... Zhang Yiming, 39, the son of civil servants, founded ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in a Beijing flat ten years ago.... [TikTok is] the first and only company from Communist China to make a dent in the West. Maria Bridge of the ethical campaign group Center for Humane Technology said: 'TikTok is a propagandist’s dream: profile someone’s tastes and opinions, then use an algorithm to subtly nudge them in whatever direction you choose. Point that tech at a generation of teens and it’s terrifying in anyone’s hands.'"

From "How TikTok became the phenomenon you can’t afford to ignore new/The video app is making a billion dollars a month and leaving rivals in its wake — it’s not too late to take it seriously, says Danny Fortson" (London Times).

16 comments:

Joe Smith said...: No interest in your friends?

How the hell does this guy know that?

A virus can only survive if it gains new hosts...; 5/14/22, 3:59 PM
wendybar said...: I have yet to ever watch a tik tok whatever, and I never will....you can have it. (I also do NOT own a cell phone....so there is that!!) Proud of it too!!; 5/14/22, 4:00 PM
n.n said...: Steering engine: you like this, you will like this, you were warned.; 5/14/22, 4:42 PM
gilbar said...: 'TikTok is a propagandist’s dream: profile someone’s tastes and opinions, then use an algorithm to subtly nudge them in whatever direction you choose. \

but, they're So CUTE!!! Let's ALL WATCH the cute little kittens!!
Why talk about Stuff, when you can just post lists of cute tiktoks and tell people to comment which they think is cutest!! That way, we'll be working for the Chinese Communists for FREE!!
HOW CUTE!!!; 5/14/22, 5:35 PM
gilbar said...: The great thing (for TikTok) is that people say "Oh, i just watch it for the cute kitty videos"
I don't have to worry about TikTok learning EVERYTHING about me..
Then, Of Course; TikTok learns EVERYTHING about them, and slowly starts changing the videos it sends them..
from cute kittys, to cute kittys with cute owners.. to cute kittys with cute owners that are INVOLVED!
to videos about how They should Get INVOLVED..
and the user doesn't Even Notice the change; 5/14/22, 5:51 PM
gilbar said...: Soon, they're like my brother inLaw with his wine.. He's NOT an alcoholic.. He Just, Likes the Taste; 5/14/22, 5:53 PM
Lucien said...: You know, maybe I Can afford to ignore it.; 5/14/22, 5:53 PM
Jamie said...: The book Nudge. Remember how that was presented, back in the early Obama days? As a 100% positive development, to "encourage" people to make "correct" choices?

Is TikTok monetized yet? If not, is that its plan? Or was it envisioned from the first as a tool of subtle coercion and has no need to make money, because it'll just become an arm of the permanent bureaucracy into which our government seems increasingly to be evolving?; 5/14/22, 6:17 PM
madAsHell said...: I think Tick Tock is like Facebook. It's nothing more than data collection. You can't believe what they can do with facial recognition.; 5/14/22, 7:44 PM
Josephbleau said...: From the tick tock vids we see here from time to time, the value is in the small video as entertainment. Do the creators do that for free? That seems to be the weak link in this. How long will people work for free to enrich tick tock.

But then smart girls have been going to Broadway and Hollywood for a hundred years now, to be used and cast aside.; 5/14/22, 7:48 PM
wildswan said...: I read this discussion by a Russian military blogger who was talking about a recent incident in the war. The Russians tried to cross a river and bunched up at the bridgehead waiting for their turn. the Ukrainians ambushed and annihilated the group killing all but 50 out of 550. All their tanks and trucks and what not were burned. His discussion is on such a high level. Society has to get out of the "dependence of good news which sucks virtual reality into a person, makes him a driven, manipulated object ... for the waiting "positive" the authorities will always have a convincing virtual picture, even in a catastrophe. Always." To me this seems like the first really good explanation of why it is so hard to get people to understand covid or realize what a mistake a vote for Biden was. Such people have a "dependence on good news" which "sucks virtual reality into a person." The analysis of someone like Brian Stelter or Rachel Maddow succeeding because there is a state of mind which sucks falsehoods into a person - I've seen it. Brilliant. And the statement that the authorities will always have some good news to be sucked in ("for the waiting "positive" the authorities will always have a convincing virtual picture, even in a catastrophe. Always.")

Society, in order to start influencing the situation, needs to own the picture of events, in all its often unsightly details. In a situation where power is shackled by self-censorship, when factual information cannot break through the vertical chain of command, I am convinced that it is public centers that can become sources of a real, unified picture of ongoing events. To do this, it is necessary to get out of the dependence of good news, which sucks virtual reality into a person, makes him a driven, manipulated object. Believe me, for the waiting "positive" the authorities will always have a convincing virtual picture, even in a catastrophe. Always. And, if this situation is not changed, it will all end in social disintegration or civil war. I draw attention to the experience of Armenia: when the real picture begins to destroy the virtual one through a severe military or political defeat, society receives a severe psychological blow, and once it enters the funnel of depression, it may not come out of it. Therefore, one should not be afraid of the real picture, no matter how difficult it is. Any problem should be publicized and brought to the attention of the authorities, ideally already with solutions. Our society does not know even a third of what is happening at the front. And it's time to carefully but continuously bring people out of the virtual coma of "eternal victories."

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-14 footnotes; 5/14/22, 8:22 PM
Jupiter said...: I'm not getting something. How are they making a billion dollars a month? Who is paying them?; 5/14/22, 10:18 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I got bored and quit after one day.

Why do people care more about likes from strangers than what their actual friends think?; 5/15/22, 8:25 AM
mikee said...: Does India still ban TikTok? Why yes, they do. There are more ways than one to prevent Chinese Communist Party influence in your country.; 5/15/22, 8:39 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: The ease with which TT videos can be created with music and effects draw in the kids and the access to the other info on the kid’s device, especially Android ones, is the point of TT’s existence. TT then mines the device for location, IP addresses logged, app use statistics, user interaction with other media, purchases, reach (how many other devices does user engage with, how often, in what patterns and for how long), influence and engagement within TT community. The profile the TT servers build is better than one any state security apparatus could create and so much more accurate than a CIA- or MI6-created profile (Steele Dossier?) has ever been. If social media had existed in 1948 that and not the TV would have been Winston’s contact point with Big Brother.; 5/15/22, 9:10 AM
Bunkypotatohead said...: "Point that tech at a generation of teens and it’s terrifying in anyone’s hands."

It works on old ladies, too.; 5/15/22, 5:43 PM