Glitch Capitalism And AI Logic

This Malcolm Harris piece on Glitch Capitalism is right up my alley. Within, he compares the "cheating" nature of machine learning to our own capitalist structures. Most impressively, he does it without being overly heady. It's difficult to pinpoint an exact pull quote that encapsulates my enjoyment completely but here's one worth a read:

If an algorithm generates a bad solution - like face-planting as a mode of ambulation - it's usually something we can fix. That's what tests are for, and engineers learn from their mistakes and oversights. Liberal capitalist democracy, however, isn't great with do-overs. In the political realm, there's a fear that any flexible or dynamic process would be subject to tyrannical abuse, and it's better to just wait until the next election.

There's a lot more context there to make it all the more enjoyable but that should be plenty to convince you to take on the full article. Don't just put it in your Read Later, spend some time with it right now.

via Belong.