It’s the algorithms

This edition contains an open question.

Image created using “generic restaurant” as a search prompt. LOL.

Earlier this year, I read and was subsequently deeply affected by Filterworld, a book by New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka, about how — in his worlds — algorithms flattened our culture. The book is a critical look at how the internet shapes everything we consume, including a question we’ve asked for years: In an era of near limitless opportunity for expression and connection, why does everything look the same?

Filterworld doesn’t explicitly take on the idea of what algorithms might have done to restaurants, but its principles definitely apply. In February, I interviewed Chayka about the book and how his findings about online culture might apply to real-life experiences.

“I think it’s kind of depressing,” he said. “You, as a creator, don’t often go viral or get popularity online for what you believe is the best thing that you’ve done, the most creatively valid thing that you’ve done. Often what hits online is the lowest common denominator, the most visually engaging thing.”

It follows, then, that we should be concerned about tech companies using artificial intelligence to summarize, highlight, or otherwise repackage content from real humans.