alt Hacker News> Simulating addictive behavior, says Peabody, is an effective way to get online sportsbooks to send you bonus money and keep your accounts open. This isn’t necessarily because operators are targeting problem bettors, he says; they’re simply looking to identify and encourage customers who are likely to spend—and lose—the most. This just happens to be a good way to find and enable addicts, too.
ML run amuck
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> Simulating addictive behavior, says Peabody, is an effective way to get dealers to send you free doses and keep your accounts open. This isn’t necessarily because drug dealers are targeting problem drug users, he says; they’re simply looking to identify and encourage customers who are likely to spend most. This just happens to be a good way to find and enable addicts, too.
Imagine justifying drug dealers with this line of reasoning
Throwback to that post from this weekend about “too much efficiency is always bad”…
Fucking disgusting. They're trying to write algorithms that ruin people's lives. It's one thing when you're causing indirect or second/third order harm (like many of us likely do) but jesus christ
It's not ML run amuck, casinos and bookies targeted addicts since the beginning of time. This is using ML as legal cover. "We aren't targeting addicts, it's just that the magical math black box that we completely control and trained just so happens to make addicts spend more money"