Google's AI And Deep Learning Researcher Warns About AI-Fueled 'Mass Population Control' [Opinion]

Technologists and privacy advocates have been warning about – and campaining against – the prevailing, arguably exponentially growing, tendency of state-aided and private companies to mine, gather, repackage, and monetize user data. Probably the biggest story of the week, a saga that has occupied the headlines of media outlets worldwide – the undercover Cambridge Analytica report caught on camera by Channel 4's investigative reporters – shed light on the power and dangers of social media. Rather, the report has shed light on how easy it is to propagandize and subvert entire populations. Allowing tremendous, unprecedented reach, social networks have, since their inception, been considered a precious tool of the marketing industry. Where is the line between marketing and propaganda, real and fake news drawn?