The event that inspired me to seek a master: Cambridge Analytica scandal
I am a senior student at university, therefore, entering the workforce or continuing study is my next step, clearly. And, I chose the latter. I think it will be interesting to talk about one of the reasons why I would like to do a master after I graduate. Moreover, this article will record what I am pursuing and fighting for.
Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal
Let us start with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It was pretty straightforward, right? Trump beat Hillary Clinton, thus won the White House, that’s it. Hang on a second, the thing was definitely not that simple! There full of hidden technologies and political manipulations that prompted Trump’s victory.
For instance, Cambridge Analytica (CA) built psychographic profiles which were gathered from US voters’ personality features based on their Facebook activity. Furthermore, CA used micro-targeting to arrange customized advertisements, videos, photos and so forth for the different US voters on several platforms.
According to the report from The Guardian, CA was able to monitor the effectiveness of their tailored messages on US voters, persistently, and gave CA evaluations about the engagement on media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and so forth. The assessment meant the algorithms could be constantly optimized to deliver messages to voters depending on their profile.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm involved
The thing that I have to mention is Machine learning which is included in the AI algorithm, it can build a self-optimizing system depending on the data it collects and the experience it has. Moreover, the AI algorithm is used in social platforms providing updated information to data analysis companies about what triggered users to spend their time on the content.
You could imagine that the AI algorithm is building a model of ourselves, it knows our interests, occupations, political position and so on. It will only become more accurate because of Machine Learning.
How does the AI algorithm link to political campaigns?
As I mentioned, CA held US voters’ models which can be used as a tool to help CA classify the voters who have different political stances and how to manipulate them by customized political adverts.
Outside of social media platforms, the Google searching engine is also an essential part of the campaign. Brittany Kaiser was the former business development director for CA, and also the whistleblower of the event. As The Guardian reported, she said, people did not know how easy it was to show up high in Google search results by paying for adverts, which was considered “an old-school tactic” in her industry.
“Control The First Impression”, a strategy that was used during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, meaning that CA ensured voters will see the negative search results of Clinton, for instance, “Hillary Voted for the Iraq War — Donald Trump opposed it.”
Why do I care about it so much?
First of all, the result of an election can have huge influences on the country and individuals, doubtlessly. Thus, it is definitely a massive deal, not to mention the political manipulations on social media will tear people apart, provoke hate comments, and so on.
In an American TV series “The Politician”, Hadassah said “We are bringing in all this new IT bullshit, brand-new computers, a whole data team. That is what campaigns are all about these days, evidently.”
Being a Gen Z, enjoying the convenience that technology has brought to us, I can get the food and information I need by scrolling on my little screen. However, we can see the flip side of the coin through the CA scandal, the tech is quite advanced and it will only become more powerful and have more impact on us.
Depressingly, We can not stop the development of the Internet, because everyone needs it. But, I believe that as long as there are people who truly care about the bad effect of tech on people, we can keep people informed correctly and consciously. We could make some changes, positively, but we have to perceive the problem at first.
Feel free to reply to this article if you have different perspectives or anything you would like to share with me.
