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When I read this article I couldnt help but think of the entrepreurial gap that is exploited by 3rd non-advertising advertisers to cheat the system. But it seems that this is a blessing in disguise as this challenges leading programmers to roll up their sleeves and find solutions to combat the problem, thereby bring machine learning one step forward. Interesting topic which will gain more and more relevance.
A lot of power has been shifted from producers to retailers over the last 15 years with the help of data, proximity to the consumer in general and store brands. Machine learning is the next step of the power grab of retailers.
I think the example of Cambridge Analytics is just the tip of the iceberg for the exploitation of data to influence an election. We humans all think of us as very individualistic and not prone to outside influences, particularly if this outside influence is geared towards the masses. However, our brain functions very much like a computer that can be hacked over time. That is why I believe technology that enables machine learning will have an even bigger impact in future elections of any kind. Then again, maybe my brain was hacked as well and I could be very wrong about this.
I remember Obama saying during the 2012 election in the Romney-Obama debate, after Romney has criticised him for the Navy having fewer ships in 2012 than they had in 1916: “Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.” This articles showed me that even though machine learning bares high risks and still has a lot of errors, it will enhance and replace technology in warfare in the long-term.
I absolutely agree on the suggestion that Netflix should leverage their data of foreign markets in order to fill the funnel of upcoming movie and TV show ideas. Hollywood studios have already done this partly in the past where they copied Asian and South American Foreign Box office hits and adapted them to the preferences of the US viewers. With all the data, Netflix can do this as well and might even just go one step further in straight taking a foreign movie and provide them to audiences in other countries with the help of subtitles.