The development of full AI could spell the end of the human race” – Stephen Hawking

“Can we build AI without losing control over it?” – Sam Harris

“The biggest risk we face as a civilization is artificial intelligence” – Elon Musk

Listed above are three quotes. The first being from one of history’s greatest ever scientific minds, and the second and third ones from arguably two of the most intelligent men currently alive today. Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist as well as a bestselling author with his book, A Brief History of Time. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, podcast host as well as a bestselling author. Elon Musk is the CEO and lead designer of SpaceX co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. These men all agree that not only will AI change the world. What it means to be human will be different from the past. Moving forward, what this means going forward is that we can as a civilization can choose one of two options.

1. Stop Making Progress

The first being to stop making technological progress as a species. In all likelihood, there are only three scenarios in which this could possibly occur.

1. A nuclear war
2. An asteroid impact
3. A global pandemic

2. Continue To Progress

What is a more likely path is that we will continue to improve our intelligent machines. This entails that we continue to build machines smarter than we are that will be capable of improving themselves. This is what mathematician, IJ Good referred to as an “intelligence explosion” and that the rate of improvement could get away from us and out of hand. The progress will result in us building machines so much more competent than we are that the slightest divergence between their goals and ours could lead to us being destroyed.

How do we match up?

For those who think that is completely farfetched, they must find an issue with the following assumption, we are nowhere near the summit of possible intelligence. It is overwhelmingly likely that the spectrum of intelligence goes much further than we could possibly conceive at this moment in time. If we build machines more intelligent than we are, the likelihood is that these machines will be inclined to explore this spectrum and inevitably surpass us.

This can be concluded using simple logic. Electronic circuits function around a million times faster than biochemical ones, which humans have in our brains. This means that the AI that has been built will think a million times faster than the minds of those who have built it. In a given week, this machine could carry out 20,000 years of human level intellectual work.

Last year, AlphaGo, an AI developed by Deepmind, a Google subsidiary took only four hours to learn the rules of the chess before going head to head with the world champion chess programme, Stockfish. In four short hours, the AI had surpassed the entire history of human progress on how to play chess by winning 28 out of 100 games, losing none and drawing the rest. That same AI can now simultaneously play the world’s top 50 chess programmes and beat them all. What this represents is a remarkable pace of progress thus far.

“The Best Case Scenario”

Another way of looking at the potential impact of AI is looking at the best possible scenario and then considering some of the ramifications. This would involve the design of a labour saving device, whereby, as a result, everyone would then be free to do as they pleased and wouldn’t have to work a day in their lives again. There is already a school of thought and evidence to suggest that AI is on the brink of taking over menial tasks and within the next few decades, will outperform humans in more and more of these.

There is an alternative way to examine this issue of AI displacing millions or potentially billions of people from work, leading to us being confronted by a terrible problem in the job market. As has been demonstrated by previous industrial revolutions, the likelihood of this occurring for what Schwab coined the “fourth industrial revolution” is extremely slim. What is more likely in fact, is that the displacement of those from work will lead to huge societal problems as mass production becomes ubiquitous.

The implications of this are that nobody has any idea what to teach children in schools because we don’t know what kind of skills they will need in 30 years. What we are talking about now is the creation of the useless class, a class that never before seen. These people who are useless from the viewpoint of the economic and political systems currently in place. What is becoming increasingly feasible as a solution to this issue is that universal basic income would need to be introduced in order to overcome the incredible socio-economic problems that would take place as a result of the progress of this technology. However, the likelihood of this actually being implemented is slim. The majority of expenditures in healthcare and education from any government or state are largely based on the premise that the system needed the people to operate. In the future, if the economy doesn’t need you, the state won’t be incentivized to invest in your health and education.

What Claire Dillon, formerly of Microsoft and technological evangelist stresses is that steps must, therefore, be taken to ensure that AI is built ethically. These steps create an environment where conditions are conducive to this intelligence being developed safely.  These steps are as follows:

1. Decide where you are on the ethical continuum.
2. Connect AI implementation to a valid business case
3. Determine measures of success and failure
4. Determine the need for open or explainable AI (XAI)
5. Hire a diverse team
6. Educate, educate, educate
7. Build a risk mitigation plan.
8. Track datasets – where data came from and how you used it
9. Test, test, test.
10. Keep testing
11. Monitor usage scenarios
12. Be transparent

The Hippy Stigma

There are undoubtedly certain preconceptions which people have about meditation. A common stereotype exists of a hybrid between a hippy and a yoga instructor sitting in silence cross-legged, listening to the sounds of the ocean. It was this very stereotype that made me allergic to the concept for so long. However, whilst listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast around three months ago, this changed.

The mission of his podcast is to “deconstruct what makes world-class performers great”. He does this by carrying out hundreds of interviews with successful people from every walk of life and trying to identify commonalities between them. One of these commonalities he found, amongst several others, was that many of these people seemed to implement some form of meditation into their daily routines.

“Meditation is the process of observing your body and your mind’s reactions” 

Tim Ferriss

The Truth

Meditation is a scientifically proven technique of teaching yourself how to get into a state of relaxation. The process of meditating allows you to relax in such a way that reduces any anxiety or stress that you might be feeling. I found, from my personal experience, that this then enables you to operate more effectively and be more productive. It should, therefore, come as no surprise to learn that a number high-class performers in a wide variety of fields have incorporated some form of meditation as part of their daily routine. These people can range from Fortune 500 companies C-Suite executives such as Ariana Huffington and Rupert Murdoch to a number of famous names such as Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Brand, Jerry Seinfeld, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many, many more.

The objective of the exercise is to help you control and observe your thoughts so you are subsequently less controlled by them. As the bestselling author, Tim Ferriss puts it, “meditation is the difference between being in the washing machine or standing outside looking into the washing machine.” Therein, it allows you to become detached and subsequently gain perspective on your thoughts.

“The assumption about meditation is that it is all about controlling your mind and stopping thoughts. What it actually is about being able to take a step back and seeing your thoughts and emotions as they come and go with a relaxed and focused mind”

Andy Puddibcome – Co-Founder of Headspace.

Headspace

This is where Headspace and Andy Widdicombe comes in. On the back of a difficult period for him personally, where he lost two friends and his stepsister in sudden accidents, Widdicombe decided to drop everything aged 22 and move to Tibet to become a Buddhist monk, where he spent ten years free from any kind of device and living in complete celibacy, traveling around Asia. Following his return to the UK, Puddicombe set up a meditation business, where he came across Richard Pierson, a freelance marketer struggling with anxiety. Puddicombe exchanged one-to-one mindfulness classes with Pierson in exchange for marketing tips on how to grow his own business. One thing led to another and the pair eventually came to establish Headspace in 2010, a company with the goal of helping people “live a happier, healthier life with just a few minutes of meditation a day.” With Headspace’s guided meditation, all you have to do is find ten minutes at any point in the day to sit comfortably on a chair with your feet on the floor and your hands on your lap and allow yourself to hit the reset button for the rest of the day. They offer a subscription-based model which have varying monthly prices, but also provide a free version which gives you ten minutes of guided meditation for ten days straight, giving you a taste for what it feels like. The potential of the app has been recognized by Jim Breyer who, as well as being an early investor in Facebook is also an investor in Headspace. He said that:

“The most magical companies I invest in combine deep passion for a product area with a deep, positive view of how data and technology can enhance an experience”

People nowadays spend way too much time on their phones. We compound that by often spending the least amount of time on apps that bring us the most benefit. Headspace cleverly utilizes a simple style and animations, making meditation more approachable. This has enabled me to be not only more present but more mindful.

Furthermore, as the app collects more and more data on its users, it can personalize its services in such a way that brings the maximum benefit to you. In the not too distant future, it could have the potential to further tailor their premium “packs”. Notifications with specific guided meditation could come the night before a big sports event or performance. Would it be an intrusion in the future if as soon as your Facebook relationship status went to single,  you were sent a tailored meditation pack to deal with the emotions that a breakup might bring? Or if you’re a nervous flyer and you got a notification a couple of hours before your scheduled flight with a pack that helps you deal with overcoming your anxiety?

As the stigma around meditation is lifted and people become more accustomed to the idea of taking out a few minutes every day for themselves, apps such as Headspace will explode in popularity. The potential impact that the app could have in leading the way in improving peoples overall well-being could go a long way to solving a lot of the mental health issues young people, in particular, are experiencing.

 

 

 

You might be wondering why there’s a quote from Kanye West above. I was fortunate enough last month to attend a talk given by Bruce Daisley, VP of EMEA for Twitter and host of the popular business podcast Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat. At his speech at the Dublin Tech Summit, he made reference to this tweet from Kanye, posted the day before. Daisley stressed how with jobs becoming increasingly automated, the ability to be creative has never been more important. With the robots coming for an increasing number of jobs, those that require human creativity are one of the few that will survive. I managed to attend the conference both days, getting the opportunity to listen to a wide range of thought leaders in various industries. At a conference full of progressive and great minds, I found that Daisley’s discussion on the work-life balance managed to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

“Stress kills creativity” – Bruce Daisley

The ‘Work-Life’ Balance

Daisley’s talk started around the issue of having an unequal work-life balance. He explored the adverse impact that it can have on people’s ability to work, and particularly their creativity when they get this balance wrong. He found that when people are placed under huge amounts of pressure, stress has an unexpected impact on creativity. Daisley used the example of how the act of taking emails on your phone has extended the working day from seven and a half to nine and a half hours.

“Midnight is no longer ‘mid night’. For many of us, midnight is usually the time when we consider checking our email one last time – Matthew Walker

Research carried out by Matthew Walker, a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Founder and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science found that a consequence of this habit of checking emails outside of working hours is that people are showing higher levels of stress. This then has an adverse effect on people’s ability to sleep, which then negatively impacts their mood, which has a big impact on the way they respond to things. One of which is that the worse mood people are in, the less likely it is that they will be creative. According to Daisley, there are two ways to generate positive effects which can improve mood, and thus improve the way we work. The first of these and the one I want to examine in detail is sleep. Matthew Walker discussed how it took the human brain 3.6 million years to put a necessity for an eight-hour sleep in-place and over the last 100 years, civilization has reduced that by almost 20%.

The Importance of Sleep To Physical Performance

Daisley discussed how the majority of people who claim they don’t need at least 7 hours sleep are lying. In fact, Walker’s research explores how men who sleep five-six hours a night will have a lower level of testosterone than men who are ten years their senior who get sufficient sleep.

“Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory, makes you more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?”

– Matthew Walker

Walker also addressed the common misconception that practice makes perfect. The truth is in fact that practice with a night of sleep makes perfect. If you are getting the right amount of sleep come back the following day having learned a skill, you are 20-30% better in terms of skilled performance than where you were at the end of the practice session the day before. With athletes and performers the world over looking for the slightest edge in performance enhancement, it could be argued that sleep is the greatest performance-enhancing drug that most people neglect.

There are not only significant mental benefits but also the physical benefits of sleep. If you get six hours of sleep or less, your time to physical exhaustion drops by up to 30%. To put that into context, if you’re training for a 90-minute football game but the night before a game you get five hours sleep, you’ll reach physical exhaustion just around the hour mark. Similarly, if your task is to with work a seven and a half hour day, you’ll reach physical exhaustion after five hours. This is commonly known as the “post-lunch slump.”

The “Sleep When Your Dead” Argument

This school of thought focuses on the importance of “hustling” and “grinding” and putting in a huge amount of working hours every week. Daisley examined how this was popularised by early Google employees who claimed that they worked 130 hours a week when first trying to get the company off the ground, averaging out to around 16.5 hours a day. They were able to do this as a result of barely sleeping and when they did, it was under their desks. Thankfully, there is no scientific basis to suggest that this actually improves performance.

So how can we be the most energized and productive versions of ourselves? Daisley discussed how studies have found when your job is to maximize the impact of your work, you should work on maximizing the energy you have to do that. He used the above quote from multiple-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy, to emphasize the point. Daisley also discussed how it has been discovered that there is a limit to the amount that our brains can work. Studies have found that the brain is only capable of 55 hours of cerebral work a week. With the knowledge of this limit, you can then begin to strategize how best to maximize your impact in a given week

The Role of Sleep in Creativity

When you go into REM sleep (rapid eye movement), Walker discusses that you have now entered a “deep sleep.” At this point, some parts of your brain become 30% more active than when you’re awake. This means that the perception that your brain goes into passive mode overnight is completely untrue. In fact, it has been found having studied patterns of brain activity, that the pre-frontal cortex which is the part of the brain that controls rational and logical thinking, shuts off at night. This enables the other parts of the brain to come to the fore, where we can then take all the information we’ve previously learned and connect it to new information that we’ve recently obtained. In this state of sleep, the brain tries to make novel connections and associations. This is the scientific basis for the phrase of ‘sleeping on a problem.’ You can then wake up the next morning after your sleep with a revised outlook which can provide you with the ability to solve previously impenetrable problems.

A prime example of this can be seen with the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, the first scientist to make a periodic table. His task was to take all of the elements in the known universe and figure out a way in which they could all fit together. He managed to achieve this by way of dream-inspired insight, meaning that what his waking brain couldn’t do, his sleeping brain could.

In fact, sleep has been used by some of the greatest minds in history as a tool for creativity. One of the most famous examples is Thomas Edison. He would sit on an armchair at his desk with a pad of paper and a pencil and he would put a metal saucepan upside down and place it underneath the arm of the chair. He’d then put two steel balls in his hand and lean back and wait until he fell asleep. As he drifted off his grip on the steel balls would relax and he’d them, causing them to fall on the saucepan below and subsequently wake him up. He’d then write down all the creative ideas that he had had in that short period of napping.

3 Sleep Hacks for Improving Creativity

So what can you do about improving your sleep? Thankfully, quite a lot. There are a couple of supplements that can be used to help you get to sleep, such as ZMAs or melatonin. The former is readily available in any supplement shop or health food store and the latter, while not being available in Ireland, can be ordered online using the appropriate channels from the US. However, while supplements are a great and handy way to circumvent the issue, below are three easy hacks you can take to ensure you’re getting enough sleep to keep the creative juices flowing.

1. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time as much as possible

You should aim to go to bed and wake up within the same 60-minute windows every day in order to establish natural circadian rhythms.

2. In the last hour before bed, stay away from screens.

Switch off the TV, computer, and smartphone. Turn down the lights in the house in the hour before bedtime and read a book. One hour of iPad reading vs one hour of reading a book delays the release of melatonin, the hormone that enables you to sleep, by about three hours.

3. Keep your body cool

Take a bath or shower 90 minutes before bed. This increases your body temperature which then rapidly decreases once you get out of the shower. This temperature dump tricks your body into drowsiness and makes falling asleep easier.

We are becoming increasingly occupied with constantly checking our smartphones. Recent studies have shown that we check our phones 221 times every day, a number that continues to rise. The temptation to check our phone as much as we do is understandable. Technology has progressed to the point where we now have all of human knowledge in our pockets. What makes this astounding is that this has happened in a relatively short period of time. The first touchscreen mobile phones were released just over ten years ago. Within five years, phones had reached an adoption rate of 50%, with 70% of those who had bought one saying it made them feel “free”.

However, it can be argued that this communication revolution has led to a downgrading of the quality of human relationships with people constantly being distracted. Although they haven’t been around long enough to allow an extensive longitudinal study, there has already been evidence of the adverse effects of mobile phones on adolescent development. Rates of anxiety, suicide, and depression in society have risen in conjunction with increasing rates of social media usage. Although correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, the issue of whether or not devices really make people “free” or bring happiness warrants further investigation.

Furthermore, the culture of being “always on” has been found to be closely correlated to young people’s lack of ability to empathize with their peers. The studies that have been carried out have found that in extreme cases, adolescents are displaying signs of being on the Asperger’s spectrum. Some symptoms of this include not being able to maintain eye contact with people and a lack of ability to form friendships as a result of not being able to engage and interact.

The Art of Friendship

Friendship has now become the art of dividing your attention successfully. This is enabled by “friendship” technologies such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram to name a few. The tendency to create digital personas gives people a chance to rehearse everything they post and share just the right amount of themselves. Not only does this lack authenticity, it is a far cry from the real world of human face-to-face interactions where tailormade and rehearsed responses aren’t feasible or practical. Furthermore, the discourse taking place online is becoming increasingly narcissistic and corrosive, with the ubiquity of anonymous comments on posts across the internet meaning that cyber bullies and online “trolls” feel they have a license to insult whoever they see fit.

Addiction As A Commercial Strategy

A commonality of successful mobile apps is that they all have a distinctive and repetitive hand motion. On Facebook and Twitter, it’s flicking down the screen to refresh your timeline. On Instagram, it’s a double tap to like a friend’s photo. On Tinder, it’s a swipe to the left or right. On Snapchat, it’s holding down your finger to open a photo or a video.

When the software is being built, engineers consider both applied psychology and behavioural economics to ensure that they maximize the likelihood of users becoming addicted. This is known as captology, which studies the use of computers as persuasive technology. The valuation of apps is based on how much time consumers spend on it, meaning that the creation of a persistent routine for a user is crucial to the success of the app. Studies have found that when someone checks in to Facebook, it triggers a release of dopamine (one of the chemicals associated with happiness) in their brain.

This can also be seen in the case of Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012 for a fee in the region of $1 billion. When asked about their use of Instagram, people surveyed reported that they had a “fear of losing a special moment” by not putting it online. How special was that moment really though? What social media really does is weaponizes and encourages blandness as users feel growing pressure on themselves to produce some sort of output.  This plays into the running joke amongst young people where if something happened but it wasn’t put on Instagram, did it really happen at all?

Tech companies have now begun to engage in a “race to the bottom of the brain stem”, as they look to maximize the utility of their apps. As adoption rates increase and technology becomes ubiquitous in everyday life, there should be an increased emphasis on engineers of these apps to consider the idea of “time well spent” as opposed to encouraging unhealthy usage and addiction to mobile phones.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of apps which help control usage of other apps. The most prominent of these is Moment. Moment enables the user to track their phone and app usage automatically and instructs you on ways by which you can use your phone less. It allows you to adjust the settings whereby you receive a reminder once you’ve gone over your daily limit on your phone. If you want to take it one step further, you can set it up where you’ll be forced off your phone once you exceed your time limit. Although apps like Moment have nowhere near the traction than the apps they’re actively looking to reduce usage of, there are undoubtedly people out there who have become too comfortable receiving artificial stimuli as a result of being constantly plugged in. Moving forward young people, in particular, should actively try and engage with their peers in face-to-face settings or set aside times during the day when they can “plug out.”

Follow the link below to learn more about Moment and how you can download it.

https://inthemoment.io/

 

 

I imagine that when Mark Zuckerberg founded “The Facebook” in his dorm room in 2004 he never foresaw that one day he’d be sat in front of US Congress for five hours answering questions about the responsibilities that his company has to their 2.2 billion active monthly users. The Cambridge Analytica scandal brought two key issues to light which warranted answers from Zuckerberg. The first being the use of the platform for the spread of fake news and hate speech. The second looking at the data that Facebook takes from their users.

The Role of AI in Censorship

Much of the regulation being called for centered around Facebook creating AI solutions to spot people trying to manipulate the site. The thought is that this could move toward solving the problems of hate speech and fake news on the platform. However, this raises the issue of censorship, as automated content filters could potentially result in some people with marginalized views being pushed offline.

 “We have a whole AI ethics team that is working on developing basically the technology, it’s not just the philosophical principles.”  – Mark Zuckerberg

With Facebook being based in Silicon Valley, an extremely left-leaning area in the left-leaning state of California, the issue of right-wing views being filtered out from the platform undoubtedly represents significant issues. There is a possibility that algorithms could be developed with bias, either intentionally or unintentionally, creating a “filter bubble” for users on the platform, thus skewing people’s perceptions of reality.

Facebooks Handling of User Data

Throughout the hearing, Zuckerberg insisted that users have “complete control” over their data, citing posts and photos as examples to make his point. However, this fails to acknowledge the vast amounts of data that Facebook takes from their users based on their behaviour, primarily without their knowledge or consent and certainly without opportunity for meaningful control.

Zuckerberg also claimed that Facebook doesn’t sell their user’s data. Despite the fact that this may technically be true, this only tells half the story. Facebook and their business model are centered around monetizing user data and one thing Zuckerberg failed to do was address this issue.

How did he do?

For those wondering how well Zuckerberg performed, one need only look at the performance of Facebook’s share price yesterday alone. An increase of 4.5% led to an increase in the founder’s personal wealth of $2.7 billion, to a total of $67 billion. Not bad for five hours work.

However, this should come as no surprise. One of the main reasons that Zuckerberg subjected himself a barrage of questioning yesterday and again today, is to reassure investors that the company is dealing with the crisis and the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Additionally, following the popularity of the #DeleteFacebook hashtag, Zuckerberg needed to reassure users that he cared about their data and their privacy. The final and arguably, the most important reason for Zuckerberg’s appearance was to appease many of the political figures who have come out calling for increased regulation on the social media giant. While he agreed with some of the senators who said that regulation could benefit the social media industry, the underlying message from him was that the company can regulate themselves.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Zuckerberg seemed deeply sorry for the whole debacle. Whether that was genuine or whether he was just sorry that he got caught is an entirely different debate. The idea that Facebook was unaware that there were people who were systematically using their platform for evil is unlikely at best. His commitment to lead a more responsible company, by employing moderators to police the site seems good in principle, however putting this into practice is another thing.

Despite a vast war-chest at his disposal, compliance costs money and the potential for regulation poses issue for Facebook.  Successfully achieving a balance of maximizing shareholder value whilst ensuring that they don’t burn bridges with every other stakeholder in the process requires serious thought for Zuckerberg and “his team” going forward.

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The Beginning of Digital Piracy

Over recent years in the music industry, there has been a distinct transfer from physical to digital products as consumer attitudes and technology has driven a “free mentality concept.” Digital piracy has become commonplace, enabled by high-speed broadband, peer-to-peer networks and the availability of large storage media at an increasingly lower cost. The consequences of this have been serious for the music industry, as profits from record and album sales fell through the floor and the trend of illegally downloading music grew.

This trend dates back as far as 1999 when Sean Parker and John Fanning founded Napster. The initial success of Napster was down to the company having a finger on the pulse of what consumers wanted, allowing both their user base and music library to grow rapidly. Record companies reacted extremely aggressively to Napster which eventually led to it being shut down.

However, this was not the end of the battle for the record industry. Apple with their iTunes platform and the iPod were the first technology firm to enter the space, by ensuring they worked with record companies to bridge the gap between free, illegally downloaded music and having consumers pay for it. In a few short years, there had been a significant drop-off in end costs to those consumers of music.

The Growth of SBMS

Subscription-based music services quickly emerged as the fastest growing music option as labels have become more inclined to release their music to these companies. There has been a rapid growth in the number of subscribers to these streaming services in recent years, with the trend predicted to continue right through to 2020. This has led to the first profitable year for the music industry in a decade, with a sales having descended to a low-point of $14 billion in 2014.

 

The Popularity of Spotify

Spotify was founded in Sweden in 2006 by Daniel Eck and Martin Lorentzon. Over the years, Spotify has grown its library to over 30 million songs on 2 billion playlists in over 60 countries. By securing deals with music label giants Universal and Sony and more recently Warner Music, Spotify have cemented themselves as the dominant player in the market. These deals have allowed them to expand their music library, enabling a growth in their paying subscriber base from 20 million in 2015, to over 70 million in 2018.

“There are millions of people who consume music illegally every month. Just getting them into a legal service will make the music way bigger than it’s ever been before” – Daniel Elk

Based on this, it’s surprising to learn that Spotify continues to post heavy annual losses. The licensing agreements with labels come at a significant price, with the firm paying out 70% of their cash flow to labels and artists in the shape of royalties.

Despite the lack of profitability in the sector to-date, much has been made of the emergence of Spotify and their success. Recently, there has been a scrambling by larger tech firms to move into this space, with three of the top tech giants recently launching or planning to launch operations in the industry in the near future. Apple Music, at last count, has 38 million paying subscribers, just over half that of Spotify. Amazon with their Prime Music and Music Unlimited are well positioned, as is Google with their upcoming Youtube premium streaming service.

Moving forward, there appear to be only two options for these companies to generate some sort of profit within the current streaming business model, either payouts to record labels need to decrease or consumers need to pay more. Either way, the future of the industry is starting to look very interesting.

 

“fake news (ˌfeɪk ˈnjuːz) noun: false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting”

“Fake news” wasn’t consistently a term that people used before the American election of 2016. However, it has quickly established itself, in the words of many, as one of the “greatest threats to democracy.” The majority of the “real” news domestically in recent weeks has focused on two key issues.

The Referendum on the 8th Amendment

Campaigning for the abortion referendum, which decides whether or not the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution will be repealed, will soon be in full-swing. The amendment, as it currently stands, bans abortion in almost all circumstances. It has thus far proven to be a particularly divisive issue with some of the online vitriol signaling an ignorance and disregard for the other side’s beliefs.

Facebook & Cambridge Analytica.

The impact from the controversy stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Facebook data breach has been resounding, with wide coverage internationally leading to a call for people to delete their Facebook accounts, leading to a plummeting of the tech giant’s stock to $159.15.

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has since been forced to come out and issue a public apology for the social media giant’s lack “breach of trust” with users of the platform.

The involvement of data analytics in influencing both the US election and Brexit has led to widespread condemnation of those in charge. Relative to previous political campaigns, there was a disproportionate amount of money spent on creating highly targeted ads to people who had the potential to be easily swayed towards voting Trump or voting to Leave the European Union.

The potential impact in Ireland

Make no mistake about it, the same tactics that were employed by both the Trump and the Leave campaigns will be at play right up until the date for the vote, Friday, May 25th. Currently, there exists no Irish regulation to counteract this issue, meaning that there will undoubtedly be widespread use of microtargeting to deliver messages to those who will be more inclined to be influenced by them. The Save the 8th campaign has already taken steps in this direction by hiring self-described “all-service political consultancy” and data-analytics agency, Kanto Consulting.

Thomas Borwick (pictured above) is probably one of the most influential people that nobody has ever heard of. He has extensive experience in the field of political consultation, with his work experience reading like a laundry list of right-wing success stories. This includes previous employment at Cambridge Analytica, acting as a consultant to SCL group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, as well as featuring as the CTO of the Vote Leave campaign, which spent more than half their budget on highly targeted social media campaigns.

Representatives of the Save the 8th campaign insist that the appointment of Kanto has been to create and track their campaign website. However, given Borwick’s track record and experience, serious questions could be posed as to the sincerity of these statements. Borwick is a man who has previously been involved in both the Brexit referendum campaign and has links to Cambridge Analytica, the company which many have attributed Trump’s campaign success to. Both of these campaigns can undoubtedly be considered two of the most successful digital targeting campaigns ever seen. The fact that this campaigning method will be in practice for the referendum on the eighth amendment is alarming enough in itself, however, having a figure like Borwick assuming a prominent role spearheading that effort in a referendum on these shores is a terrifying prospect, bringing into question the legitimacy of our democratic process.

So what can you do about it? Nothing really. There is currently scant regulation in place to address this issue, meaning the tide of fake news is about to arrive thick and fast. The trench warfare that has been evident in the Repeal and Save the Eighth campaigns so far is about to be cranked up to a whole new level in both the national press and online.