Ethical game behind the choice of "algorithm should be good"

The coming 2020 seems to have experienced a "accelerating society" intermission, but all kinds of signs show that this does not delay the digital intelligent services to become a way of people's daily life. Health code, order takeout and video conference have become the "three piece set" of work and life. Various service applications based on digitalization, informatization and intelligence enter the market rapidly. The society is experiencing structural transformation under the dual game of technology and capital. This kind of transformation presents the power of "reorganization", cutting the existing time and space again, and then redrawing the rhythm, delimiting rules and making decisions in a "photoelectric way". Linear time is broken, and "accurate recommendation" of information is a kind of "algorithm time". It adjusts the presentation sequence of information, inserts appropriate nodes, and points out what is "content suitable for you", regardless of "real time". The digital platform with algorithm as the core production logic, as the leading force in the social action network, is coordinating the multiple participation in the social system in an integrated way. By setting code rules and carrying out algorithm management, the granularity of discipline is refined layer by layer and penetrated into the capillary of society. There are three distinct trends in the structural transformation of algorithmic society. a new "platform speed" is emerging. In his book algorithm leader: how to be smart when machines are smarter than you, Mike Walsh describes an "Amazon pace," which is a "speed between walking and jogging." at Amazon, employees have to work at that pace. Similarly, we see the riders on the takeout platform who are "trapped in the algorithm". Faced with the constantly compressed order delivery time, they have no choice but to follow the design logic of the algorithm, look at the digital map of a straight line on the mobile phone, and "race with the death god, compete with the traffic police, and make friends with the red light" on the real road. Platform speed is a kind of time rhythm, which embodies the unity, planning and standardization under the control of platform rules and algorithms, and contains a superficial consumption philosophy. The cost is to hide the subjectivity, emotion and three-dimensional sense of workers, which also promotes the social inequality brought about by platform algorithm. "face recognition" may redefine the individual identity boundary. During the epidemic period, face recognition as a social monitoring technology helps public epidemic prevention, but the problems of forced "face brushing" and "disgrace" after the event are also exposed. In some residential areas, face recognition has become the only way to verify residents' access. In a flash, on some black ash production platforms, it is said that one thousand face photos can be bought for two yuan. Face recognition is a kind of "gaze without eyes". The accuracy of face recognition is highly dependent on data, algorithm and computing power. If the operation is improper, the leaked facial photos can be used to train deep forgery, cheat recognition system, impersonate personal identity, and spoof other people's privacy, which continuously brings economic risk and identity distress to individuals and causes social disorder. "algorithm gap" gradually formed and widened the social distance. The logic of algorithm is mechanical and strong, but if the social coordination mechanism is too backward, it will form a new "algorithm gap" and social discrimination. In the past, the knowledge gap and digital divide were more due to the uneven distribution of social resources due to the factors such as education level, age level and economic status in the social structure. However, the "algorithm gap" may have preset the gap in the upstream of the distribution system through demographic data, user portraits, usage habits, social relations and so on. With the return of algorithms between the society and the system, the gap between those who have the opportunity to obtain work experience, have learning opportunities and have high algorithm literacy will continue to widen with those who lack opportunities and are relatively weak. The elderly, the disabled and the low-income groups may fall into a new round of "algorithm trap", while the problems of whereabouts humiliation and health code discrimination may fall on every ordinary person at any time. Such a gap over the years will aggravate the consolidation of the class, forming algorithm privilege and monopoly power. in April last year, nature published a research review, pointing out that the future will be an "algorithm everywhere" Society: automatic news recommendation, algorithm assisted judge adjudication, driverless cars, individual differential pricing, etc., will be seamlessly integrated into our lives. If we look at the current development trend, this "future" has come. As "medicine" has two sides, the algorithm not only destroys the weak and destroys the rotten, but also exposes many problems. These problems are not only a technical problem, but also a systematic and social problem. The particularity of algorithm social structure transformation is that it is a kind of "reproduction" of action: algorithm has no good or evil, but it is not neutral. Algorithm should be good, because all the cooperation around the algorithm is social reproduction, and the future direction is in the hands of every active subject. we have seen such efforts. Just a few days ago, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the outline for the implementation of building a society under the rule of law (2020-2025), which clearly proposed to formulate and improve the standardized management methods for the application of new technologies such as algorithm recommendation and deep forgery. In October, the Hangzhou property management regulations (Revised Draft) issued by the Standing Committee of the Hangzhou Municipal People's Congress is expected to become the first local regulation in China to explicitly write the prohibitive provisions on face recognition; on November 23, the "first case of face recognition" in China was adjudicated, and the "forced face brushing" without the consent of the parties was rejected. Paying attention to the survival status and stratum mobility mechanism of the platform takeaway, creating a friendly digital living environment for the elderly and specific identity groups, and supervising and managing the non-compliance issues such as abusing market dominant position and differential treatment of the platform are all "rectifying" the structural problems that may appear in the algorithmic society. while witnessing the algorithm changing the social structure, we should also see that this "public concern" algorithm is a social mechanism, involving a variety of social elements and forces. In order to make this social mechanism more social security, social empathy and public good, it is necessary to establish a more perfect supervision, consultation and support system. (author: Mr. Fang Shishi, assistant researcher of the Institute of journalism, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)

2023-03-22 10:04:24

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