Recommender systems increasingly determine which articles we read, which videos we watch, even which friends we hear from. They collectively determine how billions of hours of human attention are directed every day. These systems are generally optimized for very noisy proxies of user value, like click-through rate, time-in-app, and daily active users. While these proxies are good enough to generate an incredible amount of economic value, we should expect them to become misaligned with user values when enough optimization pressure is exerted. Indeed, researchers have investigated a number of negative side-effects from the use of platforms guided by recommenders, including
Newsletter Introduction & Better Recommender Interfaces
Newsletter Introduction & Better Recommender…
Newsletter Introduction & Better Recommender Interfaces
Recommender systems increasingly determine which articles we read, which videos we watch, even which friends we hear from. They collectively determine how billions of hours of human attention are directed every day. These systems are generally optimized for very noisy proxies of user value, like click-through rate, time-in-app, and daily active users. While these proxies are good enough to generate an incredible amount of economic value, we should expect them to become misaligned with user values when enough optimization pressure is exerted. Indeed, researchers have investigated a number of negative side-effects from the use of platforms guided by recommenders, including