Harris warns algorithms are ‘trying to dumb people down’
by Seth McLaughlin · The Washington TimesFormer Vice President Kamala Harris took a swing this week at social media algorithms — in one of those meandering, slightly mystical riffs that her critics love to pounce on.
The late-in-the-game 2024 Democratic presidential nominee told the “Big Boy’s Neighborhood” podcast it’s time to “psyche it out a bit,” arguing that algorithms are basically trying to shrink people’s curiosity.
“They’re trying to dumb people down with the assumption that people don’t have any interest beyond what they have already seen,” she said. “Think about that.”
The host nodded: “Oh yeah, the algorithm.”
Then Ms. Harris went full Harris, launching into a flower metaphor to make her point.
“But the algorithm suggesting I have no more interest because I’m looking at this yellow flower,” she said. “I’m only interested in yellow flowers … as though my brain can’t handle the fact that there may be a pink flower, right, right, that I might be interested in looking at, right.”
Her point: Algorithms are manipulating people. Her solution: “understanding how the algorithm is manipulating us and figuring out how we’re gonna psych it out a bit.”
Ms. Harris stepped off the political sidelines this week to campaign with Abdul‑El Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, and she’s planning stops in Georgia and Nevada. The 61‑year‑old is still weighing whether to launch another bid for the White House, and early surveys show she would start in the pole position.
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She also stands to benefit from Democrats elevating South Carolina — where Black voters have made up more than half of the party’s primary electorate and helped revive President Biden’s 2020 campaign — to the front of the nominating calendar.
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Seth McLaughlin
smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com
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