Algorithms - Masters or Servants?

Algorithms – Master of Servant?
The View from the Middle

Maybe the greatest mismatch in history is currently on stage in Washington as tech giant CEO’s like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) match wits with congressional committees filled with 50 to 60-year old’s who barely know how to turn their computers on. Even though Zuckerberg and Dorsey have both admitted to left leaning bias and more than 100 Facebook employees have formally complained about it, our congressmen and women seem to just flail around as the tech CEO’s dazzle them with an avalanche of BS and blame their algorithms for the problems.

They talk about their algorithms as if they all-knowing, all-powerful forces of nature that they are at the mercy of. When asked, “how is it that Diamond and Silk get blocked by your system?”, they just answer, “oh, our algorithms do all of that”. What about the “shadow banning” of Donald Trump Jr. or Ronna McDaniel, the RNC Chairwoman, by Twitter? I’m sure the same BS answer is coming – the algorithms did it. You’ll never get the truth out of these guys, so let me fill you in.

What is an algorithm? According to the dictionary, an algorithm is simply “a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps”. And who creates these algorithms? Facebook, Twitter and Google, et al create them of course. While Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey will try to convince you and our congressional representatives that they are slaves to their algorithms, you need to know that they are, in fact, the masters of them.

There are two maxims that I learned from P&G early on in my career as computers were becoming more and more commonplace. The first was, “garbage in, garbage out”. This, of course, is saying that for errors in your volume forecasts or estimates of your product needs. The computer just does what YOU tell it to do. If you put in the wrong information or create an inaccurate formula, the computer is just going to execute what you put in. It isn’t going to ask you, “are you sure you want to do that?” Garbage in, garbage out.

The second maxim I was taught was, “every system is perfectly designed to deliver the results it produces.” Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey know exactly what results their search engines are producing. Zuckerberg knows, for example, that Facebook is blocking conservative people and sites at a vastly higher rate than liberal people and sites. Jack Dorsey knows that Twitter is “shadow banning” enormously more conservatives than it does liberals. They just don’t care, or, even worse, that’s exactly what they want their algorithms to do.

If Facebook, Twitter or Google wanted to make their platforms emphasize “truth” or “balance”, they could do it in a heartbeat. They are masters of their algorithms, not servants of them. But, until we get real competition for Google, Facebook and Twitter we will see slow to no progress. If I was offered a conservative friendly alternative to any of these big three tech giants, I (and about 100 million other Americans) would jump all over it. Now, THAT might get Zuckerberg’s and Dorsey’s head out of their…well it might get their attention. I’ve heard Donald Trump Jr. is looking into creating or supporting such a venture. We should all hope he is successful and I would be OK if he made a few billion dollars in the process. If you see it coming, buy into it.