Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategorySocial Media

two-children-sitting-in-a-dark-playing-with-gadgets-stockpac-115018983-stockpack-adobestock
Two children, sitting in a dark, playing with gadgets

Adult Content Site Leaves France Due to Age Verification Law

Will other countries follow suit?
People are likely to encounter online pornography even if they don't actively seek it out. That's how pervasively adult content inundates the internet. Read More ›
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Creative representation of social media engagement. A red

AI Blackmail & Clickbait:  Give Us Dirty Laundry

Despite all the hype about AI threatening blackmail, here’s what really happened…
Chatbots have been trained on such stories. People forget it’s just a machine and panic because they think of it as a person who really thinks things. Read More ›
austins-downtown-landscape-with-google-building-stockpack-ad-559026026-stockpack-adobestock
Austin's downtown landscape with google building

What Are My Recommendations for Reining in/Reforming Google?

Part 10: Here’s one thing: If Google claims Section 230 and DMCA protections but actively moderates or curates content, it is a publisher, not a neutral platform
The alternative to the First Amendment is a narratocracy in which a society’s commanding institutions determine what stories are allowed and disallowed. Read More ›
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Portrait, running and group on a track, exercise and workout goal with motivation, happiness and race. Face, man or women outdoor, run or race for training, fitness and health with wellness and smile

No Mark Zuckerberg, AI ‘Friends’ Are Not Good for Mental Health

Zuckerberg's proposed AI friends will not alleviate the epidemic of loneliness and depression and I can tell you a few reasons why
His solution?: More technology, not less. Meta has made billions of dollars monetizing our attention. Why not monetize our loneliness, too? Read More ›
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Composite image of blue data

Pulling the Strands Together to Chart Life After Google

In Part 9, we begin by looking at how the manipulation directly affects you when you search for information
After the 2016 election, Google leadership decided to prevent voters it saw as populist and low-information from deciding future presidential elections. Read More ›
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Hand writing the text: Search

What Public Policies Can Help Us Achieve a Less Biased Internet?

Part 8: Robert Epstein proposes a number of changes worth considering
Robert Epstein is the former editor of Psychology Today who, as I discussed yesterday, has studied the ways in which Google can manipulate public opinion. Read More ›
global-communications-stockpack-adobe-stock-98554672-stockpack-adobestock
Global Communications

How Google Can Control and Manipulate Public Opinion

In Part 7, Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today, offers some disturbing information on how search engines can be manipulated for political purposes
Epstein, working through web projects, also provides a sobering assessment of how much Google monitors what average Internet users are doing online. Read More ›
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Illuminated cityscape on digital network, futuristic scene

The Last Humanist: What the Digital Age Can’t Replace

My review of Superbloom by Nicholas Carr, perhaps the last critic standing, with thoughts on some of his earlier books
Unlike the surveillance capitalism crowd, Carr doesn’t just rail against Big Tech’s designs; he interrogates our willing participation. Read More ›
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Assorted natural herbal and vitamin supplements carefully placed on vibrant green leaves, surrounded by wildflowers, embodying a holistic approach to health and wellness.

How Google Search Rank Disrupted the Alternative Health Industry

Part 6: Google’s bias is as real as ever, but the firm has deflected it to an impersonal policy that gives an air of objectivity
Having a Wikipedia entry gets you instant credibility even though so much of Wikipedia is substandard and politically biased. Read More ›
american-cash-money-and-yellow-paper-note-with-text-google-w-318390409-stockpack-adobestock
American cash money and yellow paper note with text Google with question mark

Google’s Power Over Online Business: Monopolistic and Extravagant

Part 5: To help people understand Google’s power over online businesses, I ask. What if the road on which the local Walmart is located suddenly became a dirt trail?
It’s as though Google is doing everything in its power to throttle organic traffic, driving that traffic to their sponsored ads, increasing its bottom line. Read More ›
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Search engine optimization, SEO, background cover, the concept of optimization to raise the position of the site, the search engine for user queries, network traffic in the search engine.

Becoming a Slave to Google: How It Happens

Part 4: After an update, you always have to second guess what Google did. You become a reverse engineer who never sees under the hood
This leads to a mentality that always tries to second guess whether Google will favor some piece of content or way of expressing it. Read More ›
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This includes visuals for digital marketing, social media, advertising campaigns, market research, and consumer behavior

A Potential Chink in Google’s Armor: Loss of Legal Immunity

Part 3: Currently, Google is legally protected from the consequences of frequent copyright violation
One outcome of the resulting ad clutter is that, unless you are top of the search, you’re likely wasting time trying to make money off organic search. Read More ›
its-one-those-moment-when-you-look-at-something-and-get-the-fpzzev0uqwa-stockpack-unsplash
It’s one those moment when you look at something and get the impression that something’s wrong. Like you look at the sky and see your web browser on the screen of your computer ;)

The Utter Dependence of Online Businesses on Google

Part 2: An SEO business needs to please Google or else it is dead in the water
Google’s re-presentation of information created by others makes it less likely that users will visit them. Thus Google’s business expands at their expense. Read More ›
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storage big data cloud

The Evilization of Google—And What to Do About It

Part 1: Understanding Google's dominance over the internet
Nothing is totally evil. Still, there’s enough evil in Google that it is, for now, more on the side of Darth Vader than Obi-Wan Kenobi. Read More ›
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FAQ, ask quiestion online, what where when how and why, search information on internet

Wikipedia Cofounder on Wikipedia, AI, Bias, and Human Knowledge

In the podcast, Sanger explains Wikipedia’s early attempts to reflect a neutral point of view, It was, he says, just a dream
He talks about the shortcomings of large language models and why humans are irreplaceable and essential to increasing our understanding of the world. Read More ›
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Youth creating prayer post on Snapchat

Snapchat Has Been Totally Exposed

Employees admit the harms of the camera app
Losing a streak, for the hyperconnected fifteen-year-old, may feel tantamount to losing a friendship. Read More ›
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a sticky note with an angry face drawn on it by a disgruntled employee

Facebook Ends Fact-Checking, Moves to Community Notes Format

Top executive admits that there was "too much political bias" at Facebook, Instagram, Threads…
For the social media user at X, the advantage of a Community Notes approach is that the volunteer contributors address specific claims, not overall worldviews. Read More ›
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set of books

Are We Experiencing a Universal Cognitive Decline?

People are increasingly having trouble reading, focusing, and solving complex problems.

A new study shows that people are struggling more than ever to read, concentrate, and solve problems. The research comes just a few months after Oxford’s indicative decision to make “Brain Rot” its 2024 “Word of the Year.” Common experience itself lends itself to the conclusion that we are struggling to focus, that our attention is fragmented, and that simply thinking about one issue for more than a few seconds is difficult. The Financial Times reported that intelligence and reasoning capacities have declined since the early 2010s. While the COVID-19 pandemic is commonly blamed for the plummet and is indeed responsible for much of the cognitive decline, the downward trend preceded the crisis according to the study. John Burn-Murdoch reports: Read More ›

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Antique Wooden TV Stand with Decorative Frame Cut-Out for Historical Display

Stop Moaning About the ‘Mainstream Media’. You Are the Media Now

Social media have become much more important, relative to traditional news media and we are only beginning to grasp the profound implications
People can now build in their own spare rooms an audience that used to require printing presses or big TV studios. No surprise, governments want control. Read More ›