I may have a Facebook page. It’s a nice way to stay in touch with the family.
I have noticed however that the site’s friend-finding algorithm is a bit... wonky.
“Hey, you know how you have that friend on the opposite side of the country, and otherwise no mutual acquaintances? Well, here’s everyone they know. IRL friends, family, everyone. Are you sure don’t know some of these people?”
“Hey, we think you might know this person. You have no mutual friends. You don’t live in the same part of the world. We’ve raided your phone and email contacts and as far as we can determine, you have never communicated once in your lives. But... they’re trans. Are you sure you aren’t buddies?”
Machine learning has been all the rage of late (along with the godforsaken Cloud); but I’m really starting to think that if a company of Facebook’s size and expertise can pour millions of dollars into their friend-finding algo and this is the best it can do, well... we may be on course for yet another AI Winter.