I like this story because I mentally replace “ML algorithm” with “exhaustive search”<p>We, as a society, are doing an exhaustive search of every possible person-opinion-framing combination and ranking them by controversial. I love this article for pointing it out.
It's a fun story, but we should remember machine learning is not magic. It's not going to produce a Basilisk, and we are not helpless marionettes manipulated by advertizement agencies and social media. And if somebody was gaming your political system via Facebook and Twitter, then maybe your system is not resilient enough and has to change.<p>OTOH, I really wonder what would happen if you tried to train an adversarial neural network to produce pictures that make somebody angry, or horny, or to provoke some other very primitive reaction. I guess it doesn't work or people would be doing it already.
If curious see also<p>2019 <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21190508" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21190508</a>
There is some flaws and limitations to the AI story, but we already have self-improving thought germs: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc</a>