Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Twitter, and a few other tech companies have come to dominate what we see and hear on the internet, shaping hundreds of millions of people's perceptions of the world.
In pursuit of advertising revenue, their algorithms are programmed to show us content that will hold our attention -- including extremist videos, disinformation, and material designed to stimulate envy, insecurity, and anger. With the rapid development of "large language models" such as ChatGPT and Bard, Big Tech's hold on impressionable minds will only strengthen, with potentially scary consequences.
