AI failings spark doubt over new tech era

Swagatam Sen starts off his day in a way that most people might find strange. "The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is intentionally go to a website I have zero interest in," said the 39-year-old, who works at a financial institution in the U.K. Around the clock, whether at work or during his personal time, Sen switches back and forth between websites he likes and those he does not, all to trick the artificial intelligence algorithms that track his online activity. Social media platforms and other online services use AI to follow each user's day-to-day internet searches and browsing habits and determine what ads, search results or posts would be most appropriate for them. Worried that his knowledge would skew toward certain favored fields, Sen about a year ago began his quest to baffle the algorithms. Tech companies have tried to harness AI to leverage troves of data, but the digital pollution they generate is making people's real lives worse.