World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech

by Franklin Foer

The Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney conducted a study that found that users with African American names were frequently targeted with Google ads that bluntly suggested that they had arrest records in need of expunging. (“Latisha Smith, Arrested?”) Google is not particularly forthright about why such results appear. Their algorithm is a ferociously guarded secret. Yet, we know that Google has explicitly built its search engine to reflect values that it holds dear. It believes that the popularity of a Web site gives a good sense of its utility; it chooses to suppress pornography in its search results and not, say, anti-Semitic conspiracists; it believes that users will benefit from finding recent articles more than golden oldies. These are legitimate choices—and perhaps wise business decisions—but they are choices, not science.