Thread by @DrDenaGrayson

🔥WHOA🔥

Last July, Michal Kosinski, the @Stanford prof whose personality quiz was used to scrape #Facebook data of MILLIONS of Americans, **met in Moscow** w/#Russian🇷🇺PM Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Lavrov & several members of #Putin’s cabinet. 1/

theguardian.com/technology/201…

Kosinski, who described Lavrov as “a guy who starts wars and takes over countries,” was “flattered” that the #Russians🇷🇺would listen to his talk. “Those guys strike me as one of the most competent and well-informed groups. They did their homework. They read my stuff.”😳 2/

Kosinski researches technology, mass persuasion & artificial intelligence (AI), including the use of AI to detect psychological traits👉🏼research that inspired the creation of #CambridgeAnalytica.🤨 3/

**Correction: Kosinsky’s quiz was NOT used to scrape the data that #CambridgeAnalytica weaponized to help Trump “win” the election.

Regardless, Kosinski showed how #Facebook data could be used as “an effective approach to digital mass persuasion”.🤨 4/

SCL (parent co of #CambridgeAnalytica) tried & failed to buy Kosinski’s FB data & predictive models. Aleksandr Kogan, a former colleague of Kosinski’s at @Cambridge_Uni, built a similar personality quiz & PAID users w/CA’s cash to scrape data on 87 million Americans.🙄 5/

Christopher Wylie, a fmr #CambridgeAnalytica employee, says CA aimed to “replicate” Kosinski’s work and to turn it into an instrument of “psychological warfare”.😳 6/

Kosinski: “This is not my fault. I did not build the bomb. I only showed that it exists.”🙄

Yet last summer, Kosinski **flew to Moscow** to meet top #Russian🇷🇺leaders to discuss how his AI tools can be used to manipulate people psychologically‼️🤬 7/

Kosinski is unperturbed by the furor over #CambridgeAnalytica, which he says has unfairly maligned psychometric microtargeting in politics. “There are negative aspects to it, but overall this is a great technology and great for democracy.”🤨 8/

Kosinski claims he is no fan of #Russia🇷🇺and says he didn’t discuss spying or influencing elections w/Russia. “As an academic, you have a duty to try to counter bad ideas and spread good ideas,” and would talk to “the most despicable dictator out there”.🤨 9/

Kosinski later said he shouldn’t have talked about his visit to #Russia🇷🇺b/c the #Russians asked him not to. Kosinski bizarrely claims it would not be “elegant” to mention his visit in this article because, “it is an irrelevant fact”.😳

More like, HIGHLY relevant‼️ 10/

The “brilliant” academic Kosinski left a big clue of his secret #Russia🇷🇺visit on #Facebook👉🏼he posted an image of himself on a helicopter w/the caption: “Taking off to give a talk for Prime Minister Medvedev.”🙄 11/

Kosinski *may* be the naïve academic that he wants us to believe. Regardless, the technology that he is developing already has been weaponized against us (#TrumpRussia), the UK (#Brexit), and other countries.🤬

/end