In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that psychographic microtargeting services were being sold for political ads and election manipulation.

The top YouTube comment sums it up well:

"I don't get it. Why are they confessing?"
"They're not confessing. They're bragging."
                -The Big Short

Alexander Nix, with his posh British accent, was the perfect scapegoat James Bond supervillain for all that is wrong with the Internet. Bannon, Mercer, and the Russians are the primary agents in the manipulation of social media for disinformation… Big Tech companies are just objective platforms using their algorithms for Truth. Right?

I’m writing a whitepaper on AGI these days. The Algorithm (spoilers) is here. It seems to think that I’m also a supervillain based on the ads I’m getting on Facebook these days.

Day 19: MIT Technology Review #GivingChristmas