Gadget Lab: We Really Recommend This Episode

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We partnered with our friends at WIRED to bring you a special episode of their podcast Gadget Lab.

For this episode of Gadget Lab, the team takes a look at recommendation algorithms.

The modern internet is powered by recommendation algorithms. But some of these algorithms can lead to some weird places, occasionally taking users down dark internet rabbit holes or showing harmful content.

Lawmakers and researchers have criticized recommendation systems before, but these methods are under renewed scrutiny now that Google and Twitter are going before the US Supreme Court to defend their algorithmic practices.

We hear how recommendation algorithms work, how they're studied, and how they can be both abused and restrained.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find us on Twitter @1A.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story.
0:12.0	I'm Jen White and today we've got something special for you.
0:15.6	We partnered with our friends at Wired to bring you the Noidall series, 1A and Wired
0:20.5	Sky to AI.
0:22.4	We covered everything from how AI is currently used, its impact, its future, and we got
0:28.0	into the basics.
0:29.2	Today we're bringing you an episode of Gadget Lab from our friends at Wired.
0:33.6	This episode focuses on recommendation algorithms, how they work, how they're studied, and how
0:38.9	they can be both abused and restrained.
0:41.6	Enjoy the conversation.
0:42.8	We'll let Gadget Lab take it from here.
0:48.4	Mike.
0:49.1	Lauren.
0:49.7	When was the last time that you watched something or listened to something or bought something
0:54.0	on the internet because it popped up as recommended in your feed?
0:59.6	This morning.
1:00.6	Really?
1:01.6	Yeah, I opened Spotify and it alerted me that a new single from an artist that it knows
1:06.8	that I listened to a lot had been released, so I tapped on it and listened to it.
1:10.8	Was it Lola Kirk?
1:11.8	It was not, it was Adi Oasis.
1:13.2	Oh, okay, because I know she's your girlfriend.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.