Prospects of Employment of Artificial Intelligence in Propaganda

АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ Article PROSPECTS OF EMPLOYMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN PROPAGANDA. SINGULARITY OF PROPAGANDA Mikhail Koshmarov* DOI 10.24833/2073-8420-2019-4-53-92-99 Introduction. The object of study is the modern society in a wide, common to all mankind sense. The subject of the study are technologies of artificial neuronic networks. The aim of the study is analysis and forecast of application of artificial intellect in short- and long-term perspective of the development of the society. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study are traditional scientific methods applied in political sciences and economic sciences, combined with new terminology, in order to describe contemporary phenomena – analysis, synthesis, historical method and others. Research result. The article studies possible perspectives of development of exist- ing technologies of artificial neuronets (artificial intelligence) and its application to the production of public consent. The analyzed possibilities of these technologies when applied to the optimization of production, include economy of resources, solution of ecological problems, and national security in the context of terrorism threat. The possibilities of the use of the artificial intelligence technologies by the world leading govern- ments are also studied. The article presents a study of the contemporary application of technologies of artificial intellect and an analysis of perspectives of their application in future together with analysis of the risks of the use of new technologies in the context of the threat of terrorism. Discussion and Conclusion. The concept of infocapsule and the technology of its creation are described. The research of the phenomenon of the singularity of propaganda presented in the article allows to extrapolate the obtained results to the contemporary trends of the evolution of the society. It is argued that the state regulation of the new technologies is necessary. n the recent decade, the process of the fusion tion for consumption, accumulation, and invest- of economics on one hand and propaganda ment in particular. The fusion has accelerated Ion the other hand, that began after the es- with the advent of Internet: social networks, tablishment of the Keynsian economic model messengers, numerous e-shops, and Internet (or, more specifically, Keynes-Bernice model), services create new economic reality every day. has changed qualitatively. The Keynes-Bernice Information movement generates demand, sup- model presumes that propaganda controls eco- ply and earned value, controls prices and mar- nomic patterns of population behavior, disposi- ket cap of companies and territories. Taking into * Mikhail Koshmarov, PhD in Technical Sciences, Director for development of innovative technologies at the Russian Social and Business Center Foundation e-mail: [email protected] ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6166-5186 92 Право и управление. XXI век ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ИСКУССТВЕННОГО ИНТЕЛЛЕКТА В ПРОПАГАНДЕ account exponential and unpredictable devel- Liberty, “Cambridge Analytica British company opment of this fusion of economy and propa- has helped Donald Trump to win the presi- ganda, it is possible to speak of the formation of dential election in the USA by dint of Big data a new social model. This new model coincides technologies and Internet advertising individu- with formula virtuality is equal to reality: propa- ally targeted. Earlier the same company worked ganda occupies the prime place in propaganda/ with Brexit adherents in Britain”3. economy match. This phenomenon can be de- As stated by The Washington Post, Cambridge fined as the singularity of propaganda1. Analytica is a data firm that promises its custom- It should be noted that the term “propagan- ers insights into consumer or voter behavior. On da” in this article is used in its classic scientific the commercial side, that means tools like “au- meaning, as it was understood by the classics of dience segmentation” — breaking out advertis- propaganda: Bernice, Lippmann and McLuhan, ing audiences into smaller groups — and then with no populist or mass media connotation2. targeting advertisement to these groups on As it developed, the new model of dominat- “multiple platforms”. On the political side, it is ing propaganda increased manifold the inter- much the same thing, with one tweak. While ad- dependence of economy, politics, and culture. vertisers generally target consumers as groups, The culture of the consumerist society is being political campaigns need to target specific peo- transformed into a cult of consumption includ- ple — registered voters receptive to a potential ing media consumption. So far, this cult prom- message4. ises a prolonged life and, in due course, eternal At the present time the company is shut- life to congregant consumers. Thus, nowadays, tered, and parliamentary and criminal investi- any planned actions aimed at change (or pro- gations of its activities are in progress in the US duction) of public opinion in any sphere can and the UK. It should be added that as of Feb- be considered as propaganda. Technically, the ruary 1, 2019, the Washington Post mentioned propaganda/economy pair is a model where the Cambridge Analytica company 558 times in its real process approaches the ideal process. How- publications. ever, if in physics the “ideal process” is a theo- So, with a bit of simplification, we can pre- retical model in which friction is ignored for the sent the encapsulation of information as personal sake of simplification, then in case of the mod- targeting of media consumption. Similar mech- ern information sphere the “ideal process” is a anism of context-sensitive information acts in real phenomenon. Perhaps, it is not understood Yandex.Zen. Yandex.Zen offers “Publications to the end yet because changes occur too fast. on the basis of your interests”. The program se- This article is an attempt to understand this phe- lects content that is tied in with a user’s Internet nomenon. patterns, search queries, downloading instanc- To study this phenomenon it is necessary, es, purchases etc. first of all, to investigate the term information If we assume that the encapsulation of in- capsule in greater detail. Creation of an informa- formation is the future model of information tion capsule for every network user is the most consumption then the question arises, in what expected direction of the media development in direction will the development of such model the post-television period which will begin very go? Considering news feed, it should be speci- soon, in the next five or ten years. Architecture fied that the encapsulation of information is not of the system is quite simple: the content will be censure and not “concealment” of any informa- provided on the basis of the processing of each tion but the presentation of information that specific user’s Big data and in a form that is com- corresponds to the interests and habits of a user. fortable for a user. For instance, an event, let’s say an opening of The technology of public opinion produc- a bridge or a dam, bears indisputably positive tion used by Cambridge Analytica company is connotations for drivers, logisticians, and build- based on the same principle. According to Radio ers. 1 In a more detailed way the interfusion of propaganda and economy is considered in article: Koshmarov, Trubetskoy. On Sinergy of economics and propaganda. Journal of Law and Administration. 2018. № 2 (47). Р. 60-69. 2 It should be added that as early as in 1650 Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, used the term “propagation of religion” in chapter XII of his treatise “Leviathan”. 3 Dobryninin. S. 09.12.2016. radio Svoboda. URL: https://www.svoboda.org/a/28166040.html (Access data: Febru- ary 2, 2019) 4 Bump P. 19.03.2018. Everything you need to know about the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook debacle. URL: https:// www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cambridge-analytica-facebook-debacle/ (Access data: February 2, 2019) №4(53)/2019 93 АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ However, for environmentalists or fishers, it produce positive feelings will help to strengthen is not so. If the program knows that a user is a the trust for it, create a user’s empathy and, later fisher (because he or she regularly uses a respec- on, generate user’s dependence. tive online retailer) or that a user is “green”, it Perhaps, nowadays, the majority of people has to select not the exalted strain but at least will consider talking with TV-set as a strange a neutral news background for the event an- habit. However, this majority will not include nouncement. At this stage everything is simple, those whose first reminiscences are connected sound, and rather innocent. with touch-screens. My sister, Е.Yu. Chepel, Let us move to a higher level. A promising PhD, once held workshop with 10-year-old innovation in this direction is a virtual assistant schoolchildren. She paid attention to one pecu- or intelligent personal assistant. The best-known liarity: when children used search engine none examples of such devices are Google Assistant, of them typed words. All of them used voice re- SIRI Apple and Alice.Yandex. Microsoft Cor- quests because it is “a simpler way”. It is a small tana, Sony Xperia Agent, Bixby Samsung, Ama- surprise that in five or ten years from now the zon Alexa, Facebook M are also available now. overwhelming majority will communicate with According to the intention of their creaters, Artificial Intelligence in words, orally. A hy- such programs are learning, self-teaching pro- pothesis that such communication will occupy grams. They hear and analyze everything what the greatest part of users’ leisure time seems to happens in a user’s life, day and night, perma- be quite logical. And the majority of users will nently. If we speak of Alice.Yandex, then Yan- have a strong attachment to their personal assis- dex offers to install a Yandex-station in every tants that will be never busy and always ready home and to align it with all devices that have to talk about the most innermost at any moment Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (Google, Apple and Sony of day and night.

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