美国国家公共电台 NPR As Views Of Tech Turn Negative, Remorse Comes To Silicon Valley

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Facebook says that starting today it will begin sending a message to roughly 87 million people. These are people whose information may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica - the political data firm - without any consent. Disclosing this information is part of Facebook's damage control as founder¹ Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify this week before Congress. NPR's Laura Sydell reports there are some feelings of remorse² right now in Silicon³ Valley.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE⁴: Many of the people who helped build Facebook started out believing in its mission of building community and bringing the world closer together.

SANDY PARAKILAS: I was extremely excited about the power of social media to advance democracy all over the world.

SYDELL: Sandy Parakilas joined Facebook in the summer of 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring as journalists around the world watched how social media helped the protesters.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The weapons of the activists⁵ of the so-called Arab Spring weren't guns and bombs but the Internet and the mobile phone.

SYDELL: But Parakilas' optimism would be tempered by the reality of Facebook's hunger for raw data about its users.

PARAKILAS: And that is going to push them continuously down a road of deceiving people. It's a surveillance-advertising business model.

SYDELL: Parakilas says he tried to warn his managers at Facebook that they were at risk of putting private information in the wrong hands, but the company was growing fast and making money. Its leaders believed connecting people was inherently good. Parakilas says he left Facebook in 2012 feeling doubts about the company. Now that the problems with its massive data collection system have become public, several early investors⁶ are also expressing regrets. Roger McNamee says he helped mentor⁷ CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

ROGER MCNAMEE: I still feel terrible about it because at the end of the day, these were my friends. I helped them be successful. I wanted them to be successful.

SYDELL: There's plenty of regret these days in Silicon Valley, and more people are coming forward about the negative effect tech is having on society. Guillaume Chaslot says he joined Google-YouTube in 2010. Chaslot came all the way from France. He too started out optimistic.

GUILLAUME CHASLOT: We could only make things better if people were more connected. If everybody could say what he wanted to say, things would naturally get better.

SYDELL: But Chaslot says he noticed the main goal at YouTube wasn't to inform people. It was to keep people watching as long as possible. He spoke⁸ to NPR on Skype.

CHASLOT: This goal has some very bad side effects, and I started to notice the side effect as I worked at YouTube.

SYDELL: Among the side effects that Chaslot noticed was people tended to get one point of view on a topic and not always the right one. For example, search for moon landing on YouTube, and you might get a video like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This particular lecture looks and analyzes⁹ the possibility that man has or has not stepped foot on the moon. This is the NASA-Apollo hoax¹⁰.

SYDELL: Chaslot tried to create an algorithm that would show people different points of view, but he says his bosses weren't interested. A spokesperson from the company says it has updated its algorithm since Chaslot left. According to the company, the goal is not just to try to keep people on the site for as long as possible. The goal now is to measure how satisfied users are. Chaslot left in 2013, but he says from the outside, he watched the site fill up with conspiracy¹¹ theories and divisive content. He warned his former colleagues, but nothing began to change until the presidential election brought more attention to the kinds of videos on the site.

CHASLOT: I should've spoken publicly about these issues. Now, that's what I'm doing, but there was a bit of a delay.

SYDELL: Chaslot says he's still losing sleep over what's going on there. He's even started a site to keep track of YouTube's search algorithms. Of course it may be easier for many techies to speak out now. Investors have done well. Employees were given good salaries for their work. Still, it's probably good news that the very people who helped create the problem are now using their inside knowledge to fix it. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 remorse   

n.痛恨，悔恨，自责

参考例句：

• She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔。
• He has shown no remorse for his actions.他对自己的行为没有任何悔恨之意。

3 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

7 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 analyzes   

v.分析( analyze的第三人称单数 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• This approach analyzes management by studying experience usually through cases. 这个学派通常从实例获得经验，用以分析管理。 来自辞典例句
• The econometrician analyzes statistical data. 经济计量学者要分析统计材料。 来自辞典例句

10 hoax   

v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧

参考例句：

• They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
• They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。

11 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。