Ruthless business models like this seem inevitable in a society that values making money far above anything else.
Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
51–60 of 145 posts
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#52Such a terrible name for a company.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#53Hi! Founder (Brown) here. Appreciate the traffic! Also, would love to clear up mob misconceptions about: -Why did we pick lightening-rod branding? -Why was this the most humanitarian use of a neuroscience MS/PhD? -What quality of people must we be to do this? -What is design's ethical imperative that, 100 years ago when most died of infections diseases, that this year the majority of people over 50 will die of strong…
Are you hiring?
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#54>Dopamine’s founders argue that they reserve the right to deny service to specific companies whose work seems to be off the level... Just "trust" us. There are obviously many teams working on doing this, but never so audacious. These things are definitely not a value add to society, yet very profitable, like e.g. heroin if that doesn't sound too hyperbolic.
Happy to answer any questions you have! It's all of our job to be transparent about the new tablestakes of design, because that transparency builds exact dialogues like this! It would be more audacious if we didn't publicize what we're doing and these techniques remained the dark patterns that keep people hooked to social apps that have poor alignment to what people actually want out of life!
That's great but what is really needed is litigation/legislation.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#55>Dopamine’s founders argue that they reserve the right to deny service to specific companies whose work seems to be off the level... Just "trust" us. There are obviously many teams working on doing this, but never so audacious. These things are definitely not a value add to society, yet very profitable, like e.g. heroin if that doesn't sound too hyperbolic.
Happy to answer any questions you have! It's all of our job to be transparent about the new tablestakes of design, because that transparency builds exact dialogues like this! It would be more audacious if we didn't publicize what we're doing and these techniques remained the dark patterns that keep people hooked to social apps that have poor alignment to what people actually want out of life!
This is how I understand what you're saying:
We are building something evil and reprehensible, but we are open about what we are building, and therefore we are better than the other guys who are doing it surreptitiously.
Fine, but in that case your product is basically performance art. Bravo, you did a good job raising awareness: now go actually work on fixing the problem instead of pretending like you aren't part of it.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#56>Dopamine’s founders argue that they reserve the right to deny service to specific companies whose work seems to be off the level... Just "trust" us. There are obviously many teams working on doing this, but never so audacious. These things are definitely not a value add to society, yet very profitable, like e.g. heroin if that doesn't sound too hyperbolic.
Happy to answer any questions you have! It's all of our job to be transparent about the new tablestakes of design, because that transparency builds exact dialogues like this! It would be more audacious if we didn't publicize what we're doing and these techniques remained the dark patterns that keep people hooked to social apps that have poor alignment to what people actually want out of life!
I think these guys need to amp the “evil” up a lot more.
It’s the perfect media juncture to do it- force the conversation with obvious names, have fun with the media, and in so doing carry out the public service of shining the brightest light on the darkest spots.
And it’s not like anything is illegal. People need to be horrified before they react and then figure out exactly what is acceptable and what is not.
But the whole IT industry itself seems to be in desperate need of a code of ethics and behavior. These guys can always just dodge by pointing out that they are hardly the worst fish in the sea. Just the most self aware and well labeled.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
This article made me pretty sad and made me think of this too. I think what an ethical investor needs to do is not deploy capital to any industries that don't add real economic value or wealth or whatever you want to call it. Also, ethical founders should refuse capital from orgs that fund these projects. Basically starve these projects out, but that's sort of idealistic.
Unfortunately greed often turns people from ethical to not so ethical pretty quickly. Would be nice if the chaps above could create an AI to help with that!
We could go to unethical even faster!
An unethical AI has more degrees of movement. It will always beat an ethical AI.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thats despicable. They sell both the disease and a cure for double the money.
Bruh. Did you even look at the price on Space?
To quote Andrew Lewis, "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product."
You'll know when a user of a Dopamine-backed app installs Space, and that's useful to you. Measuring people trying to give up an addiction feeds back in to understanding the causes of addiction, and in your case presumably gives you quantifiable information you can use to make Dopamine more effective. Saying you made it and give it away out of the goodness of your heart seems a little underhanded.
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#59Hi! Founder (Brown) here. Appreciate the traffic! Also, would love to clear up mob misconceptions about: -Why did we pick lightening-rod branding? -Why was this the most humanitarian use of a neuroscience MS/PhD? -What quality of people must we be to do this? -What is design's ethical imperative that, 100 years ago when most died of infections diseases, that this year the majority of people over 50 will die of strong…
What’s your current “pain point”?
(Other than ever attempting to re-brand before the heat death of the universe.)
Re: Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior
#60Is this an accurate framing of your statement then? If we can think of the addictive nature of apps as "brain hacking", you aim to be white hats? Using the same techniques to protect through understanding, instead of attack for personal gain?
You say you only work with certain clients based on their ethics. Can you name some examples of an application for this that has the potential to be profitable? I, and it seems many others here, have a hard time understanding how this science can be used both ethically and profitably.