Secrets of Silicon Valley
2. The Persuasion Machine
Clips from this programme
Introduction: Project Alamo in San Antonio: Donald Trump's election as US President against predictions, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg inadvertent help via social media knowledge of everyone, social politics. Silicon Valley disrupting politics. Jamie Bartlett investigates
Duration: 02:12
Silicon Valley anger from the wealthy against Trump 'America First' disengagement (Dex Torricke-Barton, Former Speech writer to Mark Zuckerberg), Technology connectivity for the world
Duration: 03:21
Did Social media like Facebook lead to the political changes. The rise of the tech titans: Bill Clinton's telecommunications act (1996) was to protect users of the internet. Section 230: (Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation), owner of website services are not responsible for content put on their services (such as social media) by other people: This enabled services like Facebook, Twitter & YouTube
Duration: 03:44
Facebook, Twitter & YouTube attracted 100s of millions of users with their Data which can be monetised (Antonia Garcia Martinez (Former Facebook executive)) from advertisers using users' individual internet activity data for targeting users. Companies like Uber are data companies
Duration: 03:20
Targeted adverts on users' online time , the more time online the better for Silicon Valley's global networks, e.g. Facebook. (Nathan Myhrvold, Former Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft), Napa conference with Daniel Kahneman, Jeff Bezos, Sean Parker (Facebook), Google Founders. How we make decisions: Type 1: Emotional or Type 2: analysis. Type 1 click-bait to gain the consumer's attention
Duration: 06:12
Silicon Valley influence attracted political friends: Barack Obama Facebook pioneering, Mark Zuckerberg (Aneesh Chopra, Former Chief Technology Officer, Obama Administration): Globalisation and free markets, a spirit of freedom
Duration: 03:01
Psychometrics, via personality tests, or digital footprints instead, (Dr Michal Kosinski, Stanford University, Silicon Valley), algorithms to accurately profile individuals from their Facebook 'Likes', then adjust messages to them for persuasion
Duration: 05:56
President Trump. Cambridge Analytica's digital technology for Project Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, for Trump (Theresa Hong, Digital Content Director, Donald J Trump for President 2016), Donors and voters from 250 million Americans' individual data (Psychographics). Tailored messages defined by data, reaching voters via social networks (Facebook, Google, YouTube). Facebook won the election for Trump
Duration: 09:58
Cambridge Analytica (Alexander Nix, CEO): use of personality prediction for the Trump campaign (after Ted Cruz Psychographic modelling of voters' personalities). Data put out into the public domain (e.g. loyalty cards and internet use), Silicon Valley fury at Trump's use of their technology for his win with a different view of the world
Duration: 05:43
Fake News: Misinformation, Facebook's responsibility in affecting positive & negative emotions (Professor Jeff Hancock, Stanford University). Emotional contagion
Duration: 03:59
Fake News: Manipulation of Facebook reaction to News (Professor Simon Hegelich, Technical University Munich, Germany). Hyperactive accounts promote false news (Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg)(Ulrich Kelber, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice), Hate Speech posts
Duration: 05:29
Facebook connecting more than 2 billion people around the world affecting democracy and politics, e.g. Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn. The Canary (Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Editor-in-Chief) distributed via Facebook, click-bait stories, the power to persuade
Duration: 02:35
Conclusion: Social Media gives us all the opportunity to influence the world, but also to manipulate and spread lies. Silicon Valley's disruption has transformed the world without claiming responsibility
Duration: 02:42
Open University Silicon Valley time-line information trail
Duration: 00:20
End Titles & Credits
Duration: 00:29Secrets of Silicon Valley
1. The Disruptors
First broadcast: 6th August 2017
Duration 58:37
Jamie Bartlett uncovers the dark reality behind Silicon Valley's glittering promise to build a better world. The tech gods believe progress is powered by technology tearing up the world as it is - a process they call disruption. He visits Uber's lavish offices in San Francisco and hears how the company believes it is improving our cities. But in Hyderabad in India, Jamie sees for himself the human consequences of Uber's utopian vision - drivers driven to suicide over falling earnings. Riding shotgun in a truck as it drives itself for more than a hundred miles on a highway, Jamie asks what the next wave of Silicon Valley's global disruption - the automation of millions of jobs - will mean for all of us. In search of answers, he gets a warning from an artificial intelligence pioneer who is replacing doctors with software - an economic shock is coming, faster than any of us have realised. Jamie's journey ends in the remote island hideout of a former Facebook executive who has armed himself with a gun because he fears this new industrial revolution could lead to social breakdown and the collapse of capitalism.
2. The Persuasion Machine
First broadcast: 13th August 2017
Duration 59:09
Jamie Bartlett reveals how Silicon Valley's mission to connect the world is disrupting democracy, helping plunge us into an age of political turbulence. Many of the Tech Gods were dismayed when Donald Trump - who holds a very different worldview - won the American presidency, but did they actually help him to win? With the help of a key insider from the Trump campaign's digital operation, Jamie unravels for the first time the role played by social media and Facebook's vital role in getting Trump into the White House. But how did Facebook become such a powerful player? Jamie learns how Facebook's vast power to persuade was first built for advertisers, combining data about our internet use and psychological insights into how we think. A leading psychologist then shows Jamie how Facebook's hoard of data about us can be used to predict our personalities and other psychological traits. He interrogates the head of the big data analytics firm that targeted millions of voters on Facebook for Trump - he tells Jamie this revolution is unstoppable. But is this great persuasion machine now out of control? Exploring the emotional mechanisms that supercharge the spread of fake news on social media, Jamie reveals how Silicon Valley's persuasion machine is now being exploited by political forces of all kinds, in ways no one - including the Tech Gods who created it - may be able to stop.
Now playing