Algorithms Are Everywhere. How You Can Take Back Control

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The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Computer algorithms and artificial intelligence increasingly affect more and more of our lives, from the content we’re shown online, to the music we enjoy, to how our household appliances work. But the results these algorithms produce may be changing our world in ways users may not fully understand. WSJ’s Danny Lewis speaks with psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer, director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam. He’s spent decades studying how people make choices and find patterns when faced with uncertainty, and has some ideas about how to navigate and improve the relationship between AI and our society. Further reading: The Backstory of ChatGPT Creator OpenAI New York City Delays Enforcement of AI Bias Law How AI That Powers Chatbots and Search Queries Could Discover New Drugs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:18.8	slash Sustainable Business, no code required. That's WSJ.com slash Sustainable Business.
0:25.3	The term algorithm is so often wrapped up in conversations about the potential of artificial intelligence
0:35.2	and advanced computers that it can seem almost magical. Especially when we're told the answer
0:40.8	to just about any problem, no matter how complicated is an algorithm. They point people towards new
0:47.2	music. They determine what ads we see and whose posts pop up on social media feeds.
1:06.3	In reality, though, they're just computer programs. Complex ones, sometimes, but it all comes down
1:12.0	to ones and zeroes. Still, it's undeniable that algorithms have become steadily embedded in
1:17.6	just about every aspect of our digital lives. But psychologists and behavioral scientists
1:22.8	guard Gigerrenzer thinks they're way overhyped. So a deep neural network has many, many layers,
1:28.7	but they're still calculating machines. Gigerrenzer is the director of the Harding
1:33.6	Institute for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam, and he previously ran the Center for
1:38.8	Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. His research
1:44.1	over decades has helped shape our understanding of how people make choices and find patterns
1:48.8	when faced with uncertainty. And Gigerrenzer argues that our intuitive abilities are surprisingly
1:54.4	good. Even more so, he says, than the computer algorithms that are increasingly tasked with making
2:00.4	choices for us. In his latest book, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World, Gigerrenzer looks at the
2:06.3	algorithms behind everything from self-driving cars to social media and how their choices
2:11.6	are shaping our future. They can paint, they can construct text, but that doesn't mean that they
2:20.0	understand text in the sense humans do. From the Wall Street Journal, this is the future of everything.
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