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The Social Dilemma

Country: united_states

Year: 2020

Running time: 94

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/reference

Michael says: “Workshopped at the Sundance Institute, this whistle-blowing documentary about the social media industry was picked up by Netflix. While not all that surprising for anyone who’s paying attention, it’s still pretty chilling as it paints a picture of artificial intelligence essentially training human beings to react to positive reinforcement, and the influence them by curating the information they experience. High ranking officials from all the big names, (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest… the list goes on) develop the AI, and slap themselves on the back at how clever they are at giving the advertisers, who fund these platforms, what they want, and probably snigger at how easy it is to manipulate human behavior. Then when they see the results of their actions, they are suddenly horrified and try to put on the brakes to halt a massive monolith rolling down a steep hill and just picking up speed as it goes? I’m not sure it works that way, but good for them for seeing the light and trying.

“The documentary clearly lays out how AI and these social media platforms are threatening to case the downfall of modern civilization as we know it, or at least democracy and free will. If that sounds like science fiction, don’t be fooled. If it sounds alarmist, it could be, but there’s good chance we are headed down that path. The movie sets up its argument well, and then using dramatization, shows how the inevitable might happen, giving life to AI through actors, which is amusing, but chilling at the same time. While watching THE SOCIAL DILEMMA did make me want to delete all my social media profiles immediately (I didn’t), I at least turned of notifications on all my apps. That’s the way they get you addicted to looking at your phone, and I completely see how that happens. It’s been about three weeks since I saw the film, and I haven’t turned my notifications back on, so hopefully that will stick.
“One thing that struck me, was how the folks that developed this industry, and even the ones who have now realized what they’ve done and are trying to do something about it, are nearly, to a one, of a type. White, male, geeky, well-spoken… the kind of kid you imagined spent all his days playing computer games in his basement. It would be silly if it weren’t true. When the film trotted out the two or three female execs and former execs, and the one black person (a woman as well, double points) it only underscored the problem. It seems to present one possible solution, to my simplistic mind, always. Let women rule the world, and let’s see what happen. 4 cats“

Bob says: “I was pretty disappointed by THE SOCIAL DILEMMA. I thought I was going to learn something new, but all of the information revealed in the film has been pretty common knowledge for a long time. I don’t think my perspective on this is strictly a result of the way I’ve made my living for the past couple of decades. I think that information has been available to anyone who was interested.

“And this goes to questions of whether it’s OK for a documentary to include dramatic elements, but I didn’t think it was helpful to illustrate the film’s issues with The Family That Falls For Everything The Algo Does To Them, or to further explain the algo itself with the boy trapped in the matrix while The Three Horsemen of the Algo study, poke, and prod him.”

The Social Dilemma

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