Artificial Intelligence Has Got Some Explaining to Do

During last Wednesday's congressional hearing about Twitter transparency, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was forced to take accountability for the damaging cultural and political effects of his company. Soft-spoken and contrite, Dorsey provided a stark contrast to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who seemed more confident when he appeared before Congress in April. In the months since, collective faith in the fabric of the internet has been anything but restored; instead, consumers, politicians, and the tech companies themselves continue to grapple with the aftermath of what social platforms hath wrought. During the hearing, Representative Debbie Dingell asked Dorsey if Twitter's algorithms are able to learn from the decisions they make--like who they suggest users follow, which tweets rise to the top, and in some cases what gets flagged for violating the platform's terms of service or even who gets banned--and also if Dorsey could explain how all of this works. "Great question," Dorsey responded, seemingly excited at a line of questioning that piqued his intellectual curiosity.