Thank you for not being “amazed” by AI/Sophisticated Programing of Unsourced Information
To: FTC Chair Lisa Kahn, Assistant Attorney General, DOJ Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke, CFPB Chair Rohit Chopra, EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows, FTC Advertising Practices Attorney Michael Atleson, Lauren Feiner, Journalist CNBC News
From: Susan Lein, Secretariat, Civilitiville USA
Date: May 17, 2023
Subject: Thank you for not being “amazed” by AI/Sophisticated Programing of Unsourced Information
Cc: Sec of Treasure Janet Yellen, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Mr. Charlie Munger, Vice Chair Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase, Mr. Andrew Cecere, CEO US Bank, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Dean Phillips, Sen Lindsey Graham, Sen Marsha Blackburn, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Ms. Christina Montgomery, IBM Chief Privacy and Trust Officer, Mr. Michael Haupert, Exec. Director, Economic History Association, Prof. Michael Porter, Prof. Philip Kotler, and other interested parties.
Thank you for your recent statements, speeches and articles on “AI” or more appropriately labeled-sophisticated programming of unsourced information. You are very right to be concerned and we hope you will use all the tools in your tool belt to promote accountability, privacy, copyright protection and common sense all of which lead to a more stable society. It is my hope that you will do your best to educate our government leaders and society as a whole.
The propensity for internalized propaganda, superficial knowledge from tantalizing headlines that serve to increase polarization and chaos is grave, especially for a dumbed down, impatient society now accustomed to superficial knowledge, referent power, de-privatization and a lowering of professional standards in virtually every profession in the United States today.
True research builds a body of knowledge, is peer reviewed and is sourced. Sourcing provides a paper trail and a record and accountability of thought. A PhD used to mean that the beholder was capable of contributing new thought in the field. Good research is valid and reliable and is presented in an understandable manner, including its scope and limitations. Valid means it has a sound basis in logic or fact and that the construct is accurately measured and reliable means the results are consistent and repeatable under the same conditions. Sourcing is equally important in journalism and this too has been degraded.
Civilitiville USA in its immense secondary research on healthcare, mental health and the environment has frequently encountered published articles with sensational/leading/agendized titles that are not substantiated by the study. Frequently there is a gross over-reach. The United States suffers from an out of control abundance of government grant money for research- over $42 billion annually in healthcare alone and a gross abundance of PhDs held by many who are not properly trained researchers, yielding an ecosystem of sloppiness and lack of objectivity. Sadly, it is commonplace for these unsubstantiated titles to serve as headlines perpetuating unfounded theories and claims. Even more sadly, this is the goal of many who utilize, encourage or reward these tactics.
Science, truth and knowledge give way to financially backed agendizing that is no more than frequently repeated propaganda that overtime becomes difficult to combat with truth and fact. For example, in mental health, a pharmaceutical centric approach with liberally “diagnosed”, all encompassing conditions like bipolar and schizoaffective disorder came into being at the time new pharmaceuticals like Prozac were positioned to target and market depression during the naissance of problematic pharmaceutical advertising and its revenue on television.
According to journalist Anna Moore in her May 2007 piece in The Guardian “Eternal Sunshine”- In 1971, when LY110141 - the compound that became Prozac - was developed, depression was rarely discussed and antidepressants largely restricted to the psychiatric unit. People went to their GPs with 'anxiety' and 'nerves'. Tranquillizers such as Valium were a likely response.
Eli Lilly, the company behind Prozac, originally saw an entirely different future for its new drug. It was first tested as a treatment for high blood pressure, which worked in some animals but not in humans. Plan B was as an anti-obesity agent, but this didn't hold up either. When tested on psychotic patients and those hospitalized with depression, LY110141 - by now named Fluoxetine - had no obvious benefit, with a number of patients getting worse. Finally, Eli Lilly tested it on mild depressives. Five recruits tried it; all five cheered up. By 1999, it was providing Eli Lilly with more than 25 per cent of its $10bn revenue.
Fluoxetine was handed to Interbrand, the world's leading branding company (Sony, Microsoft, Nikon, Nintendo) for an identity. The name Prozac was picked for its zap: it sounded positive, professional, quick, proey, zaccy. It was marketed in an easy-to-prescribe 'one pill, one dose for all' formula and came when the medical profession and media were awash with horror stories about Valium addiction.” Mental illness is now third leading cost in healthcare in the U.S. and growing and suicide and violent deaths are commonplace.
Safer, significantly less expensive and more natural treatments, such as 5-HTP, Gabba, St. John’s Wart and L-Theanine have been neglected and buried and not included as options in clinical studies and the true complications individuals have faced on the medications are not formally captured or tracked, despite knowledge of possible harmful outcomes. Today, many if not most providers and social workers feel content with their superficial knowledge that most problems can be solved by pharmaceuticals and are unwilling to take a more comprehensive approach to their decision making. In most cases, the government pays the bill. This making of a blockbuster is now commonplace.
History shows that the lightbulb, radio and television were co-developed with government input so as to assure society’s greater good and acknowledge the need for thoroughness of thought reflected in policy. Up until the last 30 years, before over taken by hedge funds and deregulation, radio was the chief medium for breaking news, was highly competitive and widely open to new artists and new songs. All songwriters were compensated at the same rate per play. This is not the case with social media. For great learning, please visit EH.net, the Economic History Association.
Alphabet and Meta monetized their offerings through customized/predatory advertising, mining and monetizing personal data and disregarding copyright laws. This has harmed individuals and society as a whole. When algorithms take into consideration the user and not just the subject matter it creates instability by definition. It is per se discriminatory and prejudicial. The government decision making processes regarding the internet were faulty and did not take into consideration the greater good. Government decision making enabled newer technologies to facilitate a lessoning of restrictions on older technologies when a safer, more prudent and stable strategy would have older technology safeguards be implemented with newer technologies. This decision making history needs a thorough review.
In this day of great institutional distrust and renegade leaders and business models, highly concentrated capital and access to capital, immense dysfunctional lobbying, and highly concentrated loosely regulated media, information producers and information consumers and society as a whole benefit from more detailed sourcing and accountability, not less. Longer attention spans should be cultivated, not shorter. Those with decision making authority should be easier to access not hidden behind a maze of self-serving algorithms, foreign customer service agents or answering trees. A more engaged populace not a less engaged populace should be cultivated.
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, founder of statistics, and philosopher has said “God creates, man only recreates.” Mr. Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway has said he likes old fashioned intelligence. We agree. There is great joy in discovery, thinking and sharing new thoughts. Much can be learned from nature. The Wright brothers successfully learned how to fly by carefully studying birds. Enclosed is an overview of elephants that serves to debunk the logic of artificial intelligence- artificial intelligence is not new thought and it does not have the dignity bestowed on human kind.
To be clear, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon are media organizations with revenue generated from personalized, predatory advertising, they are not tech like Cisco Systems or Seagate that actually develop and manufacture physical technology products. When the iPod came into being and took the world by storm, it could best be described as a hard drive with digital rights management. The internet was invented for sharing information not for entertainment and through social media it has largely given way to entertainment at the expense of proper information management to the destruction of civil society and as these highly concentrated media organizations face ever maturing markets unless properly defined and regulated with emphasis on the greater good, their behavior is likely to become even more outlandish to the benefit of a few and the harm of many. See enclosed advertising/FCC data.