Over the last few decades the markers of society’s transition to an increasingly digital life have been easy to notice. Our news is delivered to our inbox instead of flung onto our doorstep, and we listen to music via the smartphones in our pockets rather than CD players. But in the last ten years, with the advent of artificial intelligence like machine learning, there has been a major shift in just how technology dictates our experience online. As patrons of the Internet, our online lives are largely driven by the gentle guiding winds of AI and machine learning—whether we realize it or not. These invisible forces shape what we see and when we see it, which can be helpful, but how can we ensure that we’re also creating space for new discovery?
Companies employ algorithms that are designed to cater to an individual’s preferences, and these algorithms are fueled by the massive amount of data we create everyday when we log on. By using that data—what we click on, look at, and buy—to get to know us, they can start to learn what we like and give us more of that. It’s the reason why that pair of jeans we’ve been lusting over has been following us around the Internet via targeted ads. It’s why music streaming apps suggest music they think we’ll enjoy based on the songs we’ve been listening to. Our search engines predict what we’re looking for, and our queries automatically populate based on past history. Dating apps show us people we might want to meet based on the type of person we’ve already liked. Our online experience is expertly curated by computers that, in some ways, know us better than our closest friends.
These personalization and recommendation tools can affect us positively by giving us content that’s relevant to our interests. And it’s not just our online experience that’s becoming more and more tailored to our needs—personalization is everywhere. We like when a streaming platform makes us a customized playlist or offers up a movie we might want to watch. It’s nice to feel like someone—or something—cares about us and our experience. Why would we want to waste time sifting through content we don’t like in order to find the things we actually do like? Why wouldn’t we want an experience on the Internet that’s designed just for us?
“You can end up in the sort of stale equilibria where you're always seeing the same sort of stuff and not finding the other stuff that might be on the platform,” says Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Ryan Dew. While the benefits of AI and machine learning are vast, hyper-specialized content delivery can also create content feedback loops that make us wonder if we might be missing something. Can we enjoy the positive attributes of algorithms while also fueling new discovery? And if so, how?
In order to talk about how to do this, we need to understand what’s actually happening behind the scenes. Algorithms are pieces of computer code that give computers instructions about what to do. They are the building blocks of the Internet, and of AI and machine learning.
AI itself is the brainchild of British mathematician Alan Turing, who in a lecture about computer intelligence back in 1947 said that: “What we want is a machine that can learn from experience. The possibility of letting the machine alter its own instructions provides the mechanism for this.” What Turing talked about more than seventy years ago is exactly what’s happening now. Artificial intelligence means machines that can learn, reason, perceive, and essentially act for themselves. Machine learning is an application of AI that can generate highly specific, personalized content as the algorithms continuously learn from the data they receive. These algorithms look for patterns in our data and then use them to make predictions, which results in an ad for the kiddie pool we’ve been eyeing or recognizing fraudulent charges on our credit card.
“These kinds of personalization systems govern everything,” says Dew. It’s not just the homepage of a news site or streaming service or a targeted ad here and there, recommendations are part of the entire ecosystem. And AI is big business. According to research, AI could deliver $13 trillion in additional economic output by 2030. For the sites and apps we use daily, machine learning is at the core of a crucial revenue stream, and often how companies and platforms on the web stay afloat.
But if you want to break away from the algorithms and want to broaden the scope of your online life, there are a few things you can do.
Change Your Privacy Settings
The data that you create when spending time on websites is what trains the algorithm to give you certain content. Disabling tracking reduces the amount of data the algorithm has access to. Go through the settings on your phone, computer browser, and specific apps and turn off tracking. The newest iOS update mandates that each individual app ask for user’s permission to track their activity, and people now have the option to opt out entirely.
“If you really want to mess with all the digital advertisers out there and make sure you're not being tracked, then clear all your cookies,” says Dew. (Cookies are small pieces of data stored by a web browser that are designed so websites can remember things about your activity). You can also do things like download ad-blockers and use private browsing windows on your web browser, but unless you avoid logging into websites and using search engines, you can never completely avoid being tracked.
Play Into the Algorithm
Our news and social feeds are organized based on what’s most popular, or what the algorithm has deemed most relevant for us. This creates what Eli Pariser referred to as “filter bubbles” in his 2011 talk. “Your filter bubble is your own personal, unique universe of information that you live in online,” he says in the talk. “And what’s in your filter bubble depends on who you are, and it depends on what you do. But the thing is that you don’t decide what gets in. And more importantly, you don’t actually see what gets edited out.”
We can't control the built-in filters, but we can work around them by taking action to expand our own digital horizons. Many popular social platforms allow users to toggle their feed into chronological mode, where they can see the most recent content. According to the PEW Research Center, over half of Americans get their news through social media. This, combined with the existence of algorithms is a recipe for echo chambers, which can isolate people from opposing views, strengthen biases, and lead to more extreme or radical views over time. To address this, start following or periodically visiting a wide range of news sites, and occasionally read articles you don’t agree with, not just ones that fit within your existing worldview. This way you’ll get exposed to the whole gamut of news content instead of just one political leaning, while also feeding the algorithm a more diverse data set. On news sites, check out the list of most popular or most shared content to get a more comprehensive list of curated content.
By periodically following random things and new people, you can explore new corners of the Internet you didn’t know existed. Maybe that means joining a group for silversmiths or space enthusiasts or rare book collectors. If you start challenging your own assumptions through your behavior online, the algorithm will follow.
Take an Analog Break
We’re in an era of personalization that’s likely to persist far into the future, but even in our increasingly technology-driven lives, we still have the power to unplug from algorithms completely. We can create segments of completely unfiltered, cookie-less life by doing things like getting a print newspaper delivered each morning, popping a vinyl onto our record player, or taking a drive somewhere we’ve never been before. The All-New 2022 INFINITI QX55 helps us do just that—and then some. With performance-inspired details, it empowers drivers to explore the world around them in comfort and style. Not only is the vehicle equipped with features to make life easier and more comfortable, the QX55 also serves as the tool to help us break free from it all.
What is true, regardless of a life lived online or off, is that discovery is always out there. There’s an infinite amount of new slivers of the world to explore, and whether or not an algorithm is there trying to guide you, you still have to do the searching yourself. So perhaps our best way forward is to continue cultivating our own individual spirit of discovery—something even the smartest computer in the world still can’t do.
At least not yet.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for INFINITI.
