Focus on the kids: they are the vulnerable ones

I used to think this whole topic was overblown. But then again, I once thought those who foresaw the obesity epidermic were selling something. Wrong on both counts.

Former Google Design Ethicist: Relying on Big Tech in Schools Is a ‘Race to the Bottom’ | EdSurge News

I see this as game over unless we change course,” says Tristan Harris, a former ethicist at Google who founded the Center for Humane Technology. “Supercomputers play chess against your mind to extract the attention out of you. The stock price has to keep going up, so they point it at your kid and start extracting the attention out of them. You don’t want an extraction-based economy powered by AI, playing chess against people’s minds. We cannot win in that world.”

In an interview with EdSurge, Harris noted that the focus of their campaign started with children because they were the most vulnerable population. He says that particularly children in schools had little agency over whether they opted into or out of a technology platform because of pressure from both peers and educators handing out assignments.