The 2016 presidential election marked the moment social media emerged as the most powerful information source in politics. Now, former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban is predicting that social media algorithms could determine the president this November.
In a post on X, Cuban wrote that “this is the first AI driven election season where policy and personalities mean nothing and algorithms drive everything.” Continuing, he noted “this seems to be a race where everyone’s frame of reference is influenced more by the narratives delivered by the algorithms we consume than the actual events themselves.”
Cuban also predicted that “those algorithms [will] evolve as new information, accurate or not, [is] posted.” The most influential positions in politics, he wrote, are the people who control the algorithms for each significant online platform, and the next most important positions are the people at each campaign who can figure out how to reverse-engineer the algos and use them to their advantage.
One person asked Cuban whether a candidate could win “solely based on their ability to manipulate” algorithms, without focusing on policy or personality. In a separate post, Cuban said that “a candidacy that is expert at online algorithms and video production could win, if the candidate is personable enough.” He also said a campaign with a staff of 1,000 people, creating nonstop videos that are micro-targeted and tested for response could pull off such a victory.
Opinion
Political campaigns have long turned on a candidate’s ability to establish a defining narrative of themselves or of their opponent. Perhaps the most controversial is the Daisy Girl countdown television ad that President Lyndon Johnson ran in 1964 to portray GOP opponent Barry Goldwater as someone who would lead the nation into nuclear destruction. Officially titled Peace, Little Girl, it featured a child innocently counting the petals she is pulling from a daisy as her count morphs into a countdown toward nuclear annihilation. The ad aired only once, but is considered perhaps the most effective political ad.
Cuban is right on point. Artificial intelligence, social media’s virtually unchecked reach and a society that no longer values accuracy or civilly conducted disagreement are a toxic stew. Add in foreign meddling with messages tailored to people whose web habits show certain leanings, and you have an invitation for deception and manipulation.
Social media continues to accelerate the trend of Americans receiving their news and political mindset from algorithm-driven sites designed to fit group preferences and reject information that challenges an ever narrower worldview. In this echo chamber, misinformation and disinformation shut out accuracy and reason at the speed of algorithms.
Social media continues to undermine representative democracy in ways that were not possible decades ago. Americans have unprecedented access to content but also lack tools to discern truth from fiction, leaving room for state and nonstate actors to exploit the internet’s powerful reach as a political tool. It’s a reason this editorial board has called for federal legislation to demand accountability.
Cuban thinks, and we agree, that the threat from algorithms extends beyond modern politics. Separately, Cuban calls the impact on children “terrifying,” so much so that he told Business Insider that “any site that doesn’t fully publish their algorithms, with complete source code, shouldn’t allow minors on the site.”
Our society’s collective swirl around the drain is leading us into dark corners. For the sake of our future, we need to shine a light there.
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