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Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

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Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#631

Post by BurningFrog »

XorNot wrote: post #556
sschueller wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well someone just asked about it in the live spaces[1] Elon is hosting and he said that should not be there. An engineer said afterwards it is just for metrics but then Elon chimed in again and said "we should get rid of it, it should be gone." [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1641880448061120513?s=20

Of course he did because it makes him look bad and he's desperate for praise and attention. What he wanted was everything that feature provides, without it ever being shown that it's there. But since he refuses to hire PR people and almost certainly came up with this idea in the last few days, no one was paid to hide its existence. The next story out of Twitter will be the remaining engineers being threatened because…

Elon does seek attention, but he seems to enjoy conflict far more than praise!

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#632

Post by camjohnson26 »

maccam912 wrote: post #617
tric wrote: post #11

From https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b92... ( "author_is_elon", candidate => candidate .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None).contains(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsElonFeature, 0L))), ( "author_is_power_user", candidate => candidate .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None) .exists(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsVitsFeature, Set.empty[Long]).contains)), ( "author_is_democrat", candidate => candidate .getOrEls…

Just removed https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/commit/ec83d01dcaeb...

Clearly embarrassing. This is the third commit in the repo.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#633

Post by camjohnson26 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #450
minimaxir wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update: Elon was asked about these in a Twitter Space, he says it's not appropriate and will be removed from the codebase. Additionally, from another Twitter engineer, the Democrat/Republican flags are apparently 10 years old and not important and do not have high feature importance.

Elon seems embarrassed: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1641908130274525187?s=61... It’ll be interesting to see what gets cut. Maybe just the Elon flag, but maybe others too.

What are the odds this flag was only introduced so that Elon could publicly fix it and give the illusion of transparency?

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#634

Post by qwertox »

maccam912 wrote: post #617
tric wrote: post #11

From https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b92... ( "author_is_elon", candidate => candidate .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None).contains(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsElonFeature, 0L))), ( "author_is_power_user", candidate => candidate .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None) .exists(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsVitsFeature, Set.empty[Long]).contains)), ( "author_is_democrat", candidate => candidate .getOrEls…

Just removed https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/commit/ec83d01dcaeb...

There are no guarantees that the actual code which is run will have this removed.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#635

Post by raiyni »

cubefox wrote: post #155
daveguy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they could pretend to be open. It's the "Open"AI model. Open-washing?

This is a very cynical take. They should be commended for publishing recommendation code at all, which no other major social network does.

They should be commended for open sourcing something they don't understand because they fired all of the people whom understood it? Elon admitted as much.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#636

Post by LZ_Khan »

phailhaus wrote: post #568
LZ_Khan wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you have a choice.. to not engage with it? If you didn't like it then assuming the metrics system is working correctly, this would be negative feedback to the ML model, causing said content to not be shown in the future.

Couple problems: 1. Actively supplying negative feedback is sometimes hidden behind secondary menus, making it much higher friction compared to just...scrolling past. So most users don't spend the effort. Even with a dislike button, it's unclear what the system is learning. It can't know that I don't like this particular video because it's a conspiracy theory, and to stop showing me those. These platforms often don't…

Regarding 1. I would expect like rate on recommended tweets to be a better signal than impressions.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#637

Post by motohagiography »

jonknee wrote: post #6

projects/home/recap/FEATURES.md has some interesting stuff: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm-ml/blob/main/projec... In realgraph you can see some of the things they keep track of, which include what you have in your address book, total time spent "dwelling" and a few other interesting nuggets.

While I would never install a platform app because I know what kinds of privacy controls some platforms have - seizing a graph of your phone, sms and email contacts (realgraph) to weight engagement is pretty egregious.

The minority of people who understood what this was already worked for platform companies and wanted to again, and the few who didn't but also knew how invasive this was could always be discredited as conspiracy theorists.

Ever wonder who else gets those graphs from platform companies? Today this is all interesting, but a couple of weeks from now when this all sinks in, I wouldn't be surprised if I were mad as hell.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#638

Post by corbulo »

joshuamorton wrote: post #616
corbulo wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sentiment has high correlation to driving conclusions from a very time limited information set. This isn't the only part that is going to be posted to github. What is the net benefit from rushing to condemn something that can only be a net positive compared to the past alternatives? I don't understand the purpose of that approach. Help me.

> can only be a net positive compared to the past alternatives This seems to be unsubstantiated. Are you really claiming that selective disclosure is always superior to complete lack of transparency?

The degree to which it is selective has yet to be determined.

Are you claiming total ignorance is superior to partial revelation? I think we would all do ourselves better to go live on a desert island and abandon everything about modern life. A shovel might be useful to bury our heads while we're there.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#639

Post by evolve2k »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #450
minimaxir wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update: Elon was asked about these in a Twitter Space, he says it's not appropriate and will be removed from the codebase. Additionally, from another Twitter engineer, the Democrat/Republican flags are apparently 10 years old and not important and do not have high feature importance.

Elon seems embarrassed: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1641908130274525187?s=61... It’ll be interesting to see what gets cut. Maybe just the Elon flag, but maybe others too.

Elons reply “I only learned about it now!”. What a crock of shit. We literally went through reporting a few months back where he was clearly instructing the team to make sure his tweets always come up, for everyone.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#640

Post by npunt »

mgiannopoulos wrote: post #593
astrange wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He only said that later; he seems to be working on a "say we'll do feature and then change it all after people yell at him for weeks" process.

Sounds like moving fast and adjusting to user feedback, usually something commendable in tech, right?

More like rewarding someone for putting out a fire that they started. Not exactly a model of good governance.
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