Worrying impact of artificial intelligence and big data through the prism of recommender systems

Abstract

Transfer from social to semantic web brought us to an era of algorithmic society, placing issues such as privacy, big data and AI in the spotlight. although neutral by their nature, the power of big data algorithms to impact societies became major concern outcoming with fines issued to Facebook in the US. These events were initiated by alleged breaches of data privacy connected to recommender system technology, which can provide individualized content to internet users. This paper seeks to explain recommender systems, while elaborating on their social effects, to conclude that their overall impacts might be increase in retail sales, democratization of advertising, increase in internet addictions, social polarization (echo chamber issue), and improvement of political communication. Also, more research should be deployed into low intensity addictions, as potential outcome of recommender systems, and it should be explored how they affect political participation and democracy.