The Personalized Internet: How AI Is Creating Unique Digital Experiences for Everyone
1 min read
Summary
Personalized online experiences are increasingly prevalent thanks to artificial intelligence, and most users are none the wiser, according to an article in MIT Technology Review.
The author conducted an experiment creating multiple fake accounts on various platforms and found that within two days these accounts were all being served completely different content, neither overlapping nor referencing the others.
The author poses the question of whether this is a positive thing, allowing users to seamlessly navigate content tailored exactly to their tastes, or a negative, creating “information silos” where people only engage with opinions and views that align with their own.
This also raises questions of fairness, as users unwittingly expose themselves and their behaviours to these companies, who may exploit this power dynamically without consent or awareness.