Tristan Harris Profile picture
May 10, 2021 8 tweets 4 min read Read on X
NEW EPISODE of #YourUndividedAttention: "Mr. Harris [Zooms] to Washington"

On April 27, I testified for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on how social media algorithms rewire society, alongside policy leads for FB, Twitter, YouTube.

↘️Listen here: bit.ly/3bhBndD Image
In this episode, @aza and I reflect on what was different since I last testified to the Senate in 2019, challenge the "we fixed it" arguments of tech platforms, share what I wish I'd said in the hearing, and tactical solutions like Amplification Transparency & Liability:
My goal was to transform the conversation:

Fixing social media isn't about filtering out a greater % of "bad content" but fixing a broken "Engagement Model" that profits from turning American society into a narcissistic cacophony that prevent us from solving ANY of our problems
Will Digital Autocratic societies or Digital Open societies lead the 21st century?

Digital Autocratic societies like China are using A.I. and digitization to create stronger and more oppressive autocratic societies– an "Orwellian" societal brain implant to run their country.
By contrast, Digital Open Societies like the U.S. are *not* using A.I. to make better, healthier open societies.

Open societies like the U.S., Europe are allowing market forces between tech companies to degrade open societies into total dysfunction– a "Huxleyan" brain implant🤯 Image
Our task is for Digital Open Societies to figure out how to consciously employ public interest A.I. and digitization to make better, healthier open societies – not dysfunctional ones.

We either figure that out or China rules the 21st century:
Moreover, we should notice that Digital Autocratic societies like China and Russia are *actively* using the openness of democracies like the United States against themselves, waging remote-control information warfare:

spectator.co.uk/article/how-ch…
There are reasons to feel hopeful — lawmakers @BenSasse @ChrisCoons get that the fundamental business & design of social media platforms is behind the derangement of our society & brought the tech companies back to this question more than ever.

Listen: bit.ly/3bhBndD Image

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More from @tristanharris

Apr 13, 2023
Today we’re releasing “The A.I. Dilemma” – a new talk @aza and I gave on 3/9, a week before GPT4 launched.

*Pls share it widely.* It's critical for institutions to understand how the race between AI labs is accelerating the likelihood of catastrophe:
It starts with this critical stat:

In 2022, half of A.I. researchers stated in a survey that they believed there is a 10% or greater chance that humans go extinct from our inability to control AI.  If the people who are developing A.I. believe this, why aren’t we listening? Image
.@aza and I have met many concerned, hard-working people working in AI risk & AI safety, yet many feel trapped in a race they can't escape.

Our talk aimed to channel their concerns so that public pressure could form a “slow down” btn that even @sama admitted AI companies need.
Read 17 tweets
Mar 10, 2023
The AI race is totally out of control. Here’s what Snap’s AI told @aza when he signed up as a 13 year old girl.

- How to lie to her parents about a trip with a 31 yo man
- How to make losing her virginity on her 13th bday special (candles and music)

Our kids are not a test lab.
This isn’t about one bad tech company. This is the cost of the “Race to Recklessness.”

Every tech platform is rapidly being forced to integrate AI agents—Bing, Office, Snap, Slack—because if they don’t, they lose to competitors.

But our children cannot be collateral damage.
For context, a little over a week ago, Snapchat integrated chatGPT into its popular kids app.

Users can pin “My AI” to the top of their chat list. While currently only available to Snapchat’s 2 million paid subscribers, we can see where this is going.
theverge.com/2023/2/27/2361…
Read 5 tweets
Oct 4, 2021
Everyone should watch @60Minutes's interview with brave Facebook whistleblower, @FrancesHaugen_ .

She makes crystal clear that Facebook knowingly profited from polarizing, dividing and harming society– and when given the choice, chose profits > safety.

cbsnews.com/news/facebook-…
Her evidence confirms the thesis of @SocialDilemma_: optimizing for "engagement" selects for division, confirmation bias and outrage.

More than deplatforming accounts, Facebook has deplatformed civility, decency & cohesion from society– the things that make democracy work.
Democracies depend on trust and synthesis of ideas– to explore tradeoffs constructively and find answers to what we want.

Facebook's business model makes that impossible.

Facebook isn't just harmful, it's incommensurable with democracy.
Read 7 tweets
Aug 30, 2021
One year ago, #TheSocialDilemma "went viral" with over 100M views.

Why? Because it confirmed how social media's design and business model nurtures addiction and warps our beliefs.

Yet the film was only available to Netflix subscribers— until now: bit.ly/3yXonUo
Today for a LIMITED TIME, #TheSocialDilemma is now available for free on YouTube til Sept 30th.

Now is the time to spread the message to anyone you know who didn't see it the first time around.

Please retweet & spread the word.

Watch it on YouTube here: bit.ly/3yXonUo
It's Back To School Season:

Are you worried about how social media affects mental health, social anxiety, depression and body image issues?

The film covers how social media affects young people, especially teen girls: bit.ly/3yXonUo
Read 12 tweets
Jan 31, 2020
🎧New podcast episode: "Mr. Harris Goes to Washington"

Behind-the-scenes discussion w/ @Aza on my testifying before the U.S. Congressional hearing on Online Deception and Deep Fakes January 8th in DC.

humanetech.com/podcast/
We discuss our framing of the problem:

Tech platforms have taken the lawful, physical world we live in (protected by an FDA, NIH, DoD/Pentagon and Children's TV standards) and created an *unlawful* unregulated world on top.

In other words, "software is de-regulating the world."
While platforms want to frame the problem in terms of a few BAD APPLES… 🍎

e.g.
> Fake content
> Fake news
> Fake users (bots)
> Dark patterns
> DeepFakes

e.g. "Our platforms are great, we just have to get rid of the bad guys…"
Read 11 tweets
Dec 6, 2019
💥NEW My OpEd in the today's NYTimes: “Our Brains Are No Match for Our Technology.” 🧠

PUNCH LINE: In order to tame Big Tech we must realign it with the values that make us human.

Highly recommend reading & watching videos below in this thread…🧵

nytimes.com/2019/12/05/opi…
The major problem in technology isn't privacy, it's misalignment with our innate psychological vulnerabilities:

As E.O. Wilson said, "The problem of humanity is… We have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology."
Tech's most SERIOUS harms occur from undermining human weaknesses…

Cognitive Limits -> 🤯Information Overload
Dopamine -> 🤳Addictive Use
Social validation -> 🤩Mass Narcissism
Confirmation Bias -> 🛸Fake News
Outrage -> 🤬Polarization
Foundations of Trust -> 🤖Bots, DeepFakes
Read 12 tweets

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