Facebook's advertisers

Facebook's AI Targeting and Behavioral Prediction

• Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, expressed concerns about Facebook's AI targeting, stating it could be weaponized and used to manipulate elections.
• The document highlights Facebook's success in monetizing a specific, unnamed racial group, raising questions about the methods used, such as FBLearner Flow.
• Pasquale, a law professor, finds Facebook's behavioral prediction work "eerie" and worries about turning algorithmic predictions into self-fulfilling prophecies.
• The incentives created by AI pose problems, especially in sensitive contexts like political campaigns or healthcare, as highlighted by Rumman Chowdhury from Accenture's Responsible AI initiative.
• Facebook's reluctance to fully disclose how it monetizes AI is seen as a symptom of the conflict between the company and accountability, according to Albright.
• Facebook denies using FBLearner Flow for marketing applications and is hesitant to disclose more details beyond what's demanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission and crisis PR.
• Despite controversies, Facebook's user base and revenue continue to expand, suggesting a lack of impact on the company's image and user trust.
• The advertising industry has a history of behavior prediction, but users of Facebook and other technologies are deliberately kept in a state of near-total ignorance about the use of their data.
• Unlike other industries like food, Facebook is not mandated by law to disclose exactly what it does with user data, contributing to the lack of transparency.
• Facebook's use of data to train AI prediction models for targeting and extracting money from users raises questions about the company's responsibility to protect user data.
• Mark Zuckerberg's statement about the responsibility to protect user data contradicts Facebook's use of data for AI prediction models and targeted advertising.
• The lack of transparency and conflicting statements from Facebook make it difficult for users to trust the company's commitment to data protection and ethical use of AI.

Facebook's Artificial Intelligence Advertising and Data Monetization

• Facebook has the ability to predict future behavior and alter a consumer's anticipated course through targeted advertising based on decisions they haven't made yet.
• It can use its user base of over 2 billion individuals to identify millions of people at risk of switching from one brand to a competitor and target them with aggressive advertising to preempt and change their decision.
• The service is called "loyalty prediction" and uses facts of users' lives to predict their future behavior.
• Facebook's artificial intelligence advertising is similar to Cambridge Analytica's "psychographic" profiling of voters, but Facebook has unfettered access to vast databases of behavior and preferences.
• Despite Mark Zuckerberg's claims, Facebook essentially acts as a data wholesaler, monetizing advertising insights that are intimately about the users.
• The document mentions drawing on location, device information, Wi-Fi network details, video usage, affinities, and details of friendships to run a computer simulation of a user's life.
• The systems described in the document raise ethical issues, including potential manipulation of users, influence on elections, and strong-arming businesses.
• Experts believe Facebook has an ethical obligation to disclose how it uses artificial intelligence to monetize user data, despite its incentive to keep the technology under wraps.
• Facebook has been plagued by data controversies and privacy scandals throughout its history, despite corporate apologies.
• The company has focused on portraying the benign, friendly uses of artificial intelligence, such as FBLearner Flow, as a toolset to tune itself to users' preferences.
• FBLearner Flow has been publicized as an internal software toolset that enables AI to power many of the experiences and interactions people have on Facebook.
• Facebook's extensive access to user data and use of artificial intelligence raise serious ethical and privacy concerns, with potential implications for user manipulation, election influence, and business practices.

Facebook's AI Targeting and Behavioral Prediction

• Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, expressed concerns about Facebook's AI targeting, stating it could be weaponized and used to manipulate elections.
• The document highlights Facebook's success in monetizing a specific, unnamed racial group, raising questions about the methods used, such as FBLearner Flow.
• Pasquale, a law professor, finds Facebook's behavioral prediction work "eerie" and worries about turning algorithmic predictions into self-fulfilling prophecies.
• The incentives created by AI pose problems, especially in sensitive contexts like political campaigns or healthcare, as highlighted by Rumman Chowdhury from Accenture's Responsible AI initiative.
• Facebook's reluctance to fully disclose how it monetizes AI is seen as a symptom of the conflict between the company and accountability, according to Albright.
• Facebook denies using FBLearner Flow for marketing applications and is hesitant to disclose more details beyond what's demanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission and crisis PR.
• Despite controversies, Facebook's user base and revenue continue to expand, suggesting a lack of impact on the company's image and user trust.
• The advertising industry has a history of behavior prediction, but users of Facebook and other technologies are deliberately kept in a state of near-total ignorance about the use of their data.
• Unlike other industries like food, Facebook is not mandated by law to disclose exactly what it does with user data, contributing to the lack of transparency.
• Facebook's use of data to train AI prediction models for targeting and extracting money from users raises questions about the company's responsibility to protect user data.
• Mark Zuckerberg's statement about the responsibility to protect user data contradicts Facebook's use of data for AI prediction models and targeted advertising.
• The lack of transparency and conflicting statements from Facebook make it difficult for users to trust the company's commitment to data protection and ethical use of AI.