Neural networks have long been an integral part of our everyday life – work, education, entertainment. Artificial intelligence (AI), which opens new opportunities for mankind, at the same time can be used to manipulate public consciousness through control over information. With the advent of algorithms and technologies capable of analyzing and interpreting data, AI has great potential in shaping and manipulating public opinion. Yaroslav Bogdanov, founder of GDA Group, is convinced of this.
“On the scale of the global digital space, artificial intelligence has long gone beyond being an auxiliary tool. Its technologies are actively used to control content and fragment information space for the benefit of a particular state and its political course. This can be traced through the example algorithmic recommendations,” said Yaroslav Bogdanov.
The average user is increasingly delegating routine tasks to neural networks. A negligibly small percentage of them ask questions regarding who, how and with what data a particular AI model was trained.
A neural network is a product most often offered to consumers as a way to facilitate their professional activities. The average user, as a rule, has little interest in the technological processes underlying the creation of the product they purchase for their purposes. And even for the curious, the information, being a trade secret of the service provider, may not be available.
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“Every AI model is trained by a human. It will only broadcast what is fed to it. According to 2022 data, more than 5 billion of the world’s 8 billion people have internet access. About the same number use social media on a regular basis. The content consumed is based on AI-driven recommendations. Given that the content itself has long been generated by neural networks, the hypothesis of manipulation of public consciousness is becoming more and more a reality”, said Yaroslav Bogdanov.
In 2021, experts in the field of artificial intelligence gave a forecast that in 3 – 5 years the value of AI for mass digital platforms and global information space will become truly colossal. Algorithms will become a fully-fledged tool of economic and political confrontation between technologically advanced countries and big business affiliated with them. According to the founder of GDA Group this prediction has come true, as today the world has entered the era of the “big race for AI”.
“Artificial Intelligence is data-driven. Models are trained on data, which they process for the user. It is possible to influence public opinion by weighting the AI model towards the person who is training this or that language model. Considering that today we live in a high speed era, not only the possession of data, but also the speed of its processing is important. Accordingly, whoever holds control over speed gets all the tools to influence minds. There is no doubt that by having such an effective mechanism in hand, some states will try to use it for their own interests. And there is only one mitigation for this – to negotiate. At the highest level there should be a dialog on the limits of development and application of artificial intelligence. Otherwise, such flirtations and manipulations with technology may one day get out of control. Then there will be no leaders left, and all of humanity will be the loser,” said Yaroslav Bogdanov.
The GDA Group, which he heads, declares one of its activities to be the formation of a platform for the above-mentioned dialog. Representatives of government, business and experts in this field should take part in it.
