anthropomorphization of algorithms

June 13, 2021

motivation #

Daily human life is becoming increasingly intertwined with algorithms. The people who develop these algorithms (and, to a lesser extent, the implicit users of these algorithms — the general public) can only use their native languages to describe algorithmic nature and activity. E.g., “Netflix is recommending this movie to me”, “my Tesla is looking ahead to find obstructions blocking our path”, or “the software loading wheel indicates the computer is thinking”.¹ Though, I wonder about the difference between a Netflix algorithm making a recommendation and a human doing the same. When a Tesla car looks, is it doing the same thing a human would do when they look? More importantly, what are the consequences of conflating algorithm activity with human activity?