It’s time for greater scrutiny of the algorithms that profile users and filter ideas in social media. | iStock/VectorFun
The old maxim holds that a lie spreads much faster than a truth, but it has taken the global reach and lightning speed of social media to lay it bare before the world.
One problem of the age of misinformation, says sociologist and former journalist Mutale Nkonde, a fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), is that the artificial intelligence algorithms used to profile users and disseminate information to them, whether truthful or not, are inherently biased against minority groups, because they are underrepresented in the historical data upon which the algorithms are based.
Giving Billions Fast, MacKenzie Scott Upends Philanthropy
Through a streamlined operation, Ms. Scott has given away $6 billion this year, much of it to small charities and nonprofits.
MacKenzie Scott in 2018. Her fortune comes from shares of Amazon that she got after her divorce last year from Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder.Credit.Getty Images
Dec. 20, 2020
On a Monday evening in November, Dorri McWhorter, the chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. Metropolitan Chicago, got a phone call from a representative of the billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The news was almost too good to be true: Her group would be receiving a $9 million gift.