Tag Archives: algorithms

Algorithms: Recipes for Disaster

When we purchase digital advertising, we place our faith in the algorithms–a fancy word for “recipes”–used to determine things like the final price of the inventory, which creative is shown, and the frequency at which those impressions are shown. There’s … Continue reading

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Profit Maximization, Humanity Minimization

Facebook stepped in it again, this time by allowing users of their advertising platform to target users via vile anti-Semitic terms. Do I think the people or the company is anti-Semitic? Of course not. I think the company* is anti-human. … Continue reading

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Live by the Algorithm, Die by Same

Think your fancy, all-seeing algorithm can’t be gamed? So do the fools at Uber. Unfortunately, it looks like Uber drivers can just switch off the app at once and trigger surge pricing. No complicated competing algorithm, no data scientists needed. Complex … Continue reading

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Why Are We Eliminating The Human?

David Byrne wrote an eloquent piece yesterday, in which he said: “Our random accidents and odd behaviors are fun—they make life enjoyable. I’m wondering what we’re left with when there are fewer and fewer human interactions. Remove humans from the … Continue reading

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Still Trust in Big Data?

We had an election yesterday where hundreds of millions of dollars of models, data collection and analytics predicted one outcome. We got the other. Still think you can predict how a particular ad impression will impact a purchase decision for the … Continue reading

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