A recent study by Mozilla found YouTube’s AI continues to pull up piles of “bottom-feeding/low grade/divisive/ disinforming content”.
YouTube’s video recommending algorithm has long faced accusations that its AI algorithm amplifies hate speech, political extremism and conspiracy theories as it looks to pull people in a vicious cycle of clicks. Mozilla's study further confirms this hypothesis.
Though YouTube’s parent company Google responded by announcing a few policy tweaks and limiting the odd hateful content, there is a lot of ground to be covered. According to Mozilla, “… Google has been pretty successful at fuzzing criticism with superficial claims of reform.”
The Mozilla study found inappropriate content was a greater problem in non-English speaking countries. To fix YouTube’s algorithm, Mozilla suggested a combination of laws that mandate transparency into AI systems and protect independent researchers so they can interrogate algorithm impacts. The law should also empower platform users with robust controls.
[17 minute read]
