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Did Donald Trump Use Artificial Intelligence to Win the Election?
Hacker Noon ^ | February 16, 2017 | Trent Lapinski

Posted on 02/16/2017 6:00:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

According to Scout.ai, a publication of journalists, professors, and science fiction authors, the answer is a resounding YES.

It is even possible that Donald Trump used data analytics to determine which cities, and states to visit, as well as commanded his own personal botnet army that outnumbered Hillary Clinton’s 5 to 1.

Naturally, I was skeptical of everything this article claims, I even slept on this story before hitting publish. I’ve since looked into their claims and they appear to be telling the truth about the technology and people involved. What is unknown is the extent and success of what Trump and his team accomplished, but given the fact Trump won the election it is entirely possible these technologies could have been a deciding factor. Which means artificial intelligence, machine learning, echo chambers, and weaponized propaganda just influenced the election—not the Russians.

Let me explain.

Steve Bannon is on the board of directors of a privately held company out of London called Cambridge Analytica. They’re a data mining, analytics, and strategic communications company funded by Robert Mercer, a friend and supporter of now President Donald Trump. This company has developed strategic processes and products for automating the ability to track and analyze everyone’s social media presence, and then target and optimize advertising specifically to millions of people using machine learning to show them “news” that matches their political identity. They are then able to use the engagement data to geographically see where Trump could potentially persuade people to vote for him, especially in swing states. Or just poison the well, and persuade people not to vote for Hillary Clinton.

In other words, Steve Bannon and company figured out that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook put everyone into echo chambers, which I wrote about the night of the election, and realized they could use that to their advantage to persuade the masses into voting for Donald Trump. By using machine learning, which enables computers to learn without being programmed, they were able to develop software to analyze everyone’s personalities based on purchased data and Facebook. They then used that analysis to display specifically tailored ads or “news” on Facebook and other websites (sometimes following users across the Internet), showing these users dark posts that only that person saw. By doing this, they could significantly optimize engagement and target people they knew statistically had a high probability of becoming a Trump supporter. They could also target Hillary Clinton supporters, and potentially persuade them not to vote.

Those who did not engage, Bannon and company then knew to ignore and no longer pursue (saving time and money). Those who did engage were put into new echo chambers controlled by Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica. By continuing to advertise to them what the machine learning software determined they wanted to read, they were able to persuade people to vote for Donald Trump who may not have normally voted; or perhaps discourage people from voting for Hillary.

If all of this is true, Steve Bannon essentially used Silicon Valley’s own means of social engineering, echo chambers, and monetization strategies against those company’s and Hillary Clinton to persuade Twitter and Facebook users to vote for Donald Trump instead. Only spending a fraction of what Hillary spent, and with much greater efficiency and accuracy.

The robots are here.

In addition, this article claims Trump also had his own army on social media similar to David Brock’s Correct The Record, which was spreading propaganda for Hillary Clinton. However, instead of having paid human trolls doing their dirty work like CTR, who didn’t actually believe what they were being paid to write about, Trump used intelligent robots and leveraged existing social media botnets. This way Trump, Bannon, and his team were able to control the exact messages and narratives they wanted to send, and amplify anything that fit their narrative. It is even possible they paid to use existing Russian or Ukrainian botnets they purchased or leased from stateless rogue hackers (which is consistent with the Russian hacking narrative but a completely new way of looking at the evidence).

They didn’t even necessarily have to create the content, merely amplify anything that supported an idea or concept they liked that would either influence people to vote for Donald Trump, or persuade them not to vote for Hillary Clinton. It probably didn’t hurt that Bannon was able to leverage his position with Breitbart News as well.

It would not surprise me if my own article from election night, which received over 9 million reads in the days after the election, benefited from being retweeted and promoted by this Trump botnet. I was promoting the story heavily on Twitter using hashtags and keywords the bots were potentially amplifying. I don’t believe my reads or views were faked because most of my traffic came from Facebook and Twitter, and I was also the top story on Medium for a few days.

However, it is still possible the story was amplified by these bots causing real people to actually read my article, and even follow me. The intention of Trump’s botnet was actual human engagement as compared to Hillary’s CTR spam like techniques. The article gained so much traction so quickly that even one of Trump’s advisors read it (sadly I can’t find the tweet, but they did mention me on Twitter).

While I can’t prove any of this, the fact it is even a possibility is both equally exciting, and frightening. While it is possible my article really did spread organically and was not amplified by a Trump robot army, the possibility that I may have accidentally tapped into something few people knew existed is something out of a science fiction novel.

The even scarier thing about all of this is the technology outlined in this article does in fact exist, and everything I’ve proposed is technologically possible and is exactly what Cambridge Analytica claims they can do.

Did artificial intelligence just win Donald Trump the Presidency?

Disclaimer: This article is about technology and propaganda Trump might have used to win the election. It is not an endorsement of Trump or Steve Bannon.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet; Politics
KEYWORDS: ai; bannon; dataanalytics; intelligence; trump
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Smarter and cheaper.
1 posted on 02/16/2017 6:00:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

DIVINE INTELLIGENCE won the election. Give GOD the glory!


2 posted on 02/16/2017 6:07:38 PM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Or maybe Trump with his high IQ, good business sense and judgment about social trends - due to marketing his businesses - is smarter than the average bot.


3 posted on 02/16/2017 6:07:43 PM PST by angry elephant (My MAGA cap is from a rally in Washingon state in May 2016)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Between artificial intelligence on the Trump side and Organic stupidity on Hillarys it was never in doubt.

CC


4 posted on 02/16/2017 6:08:52 PM PST by Celtic Conservative (CC: purveyor of cryptic, snarky posts since December, 2000..)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There was certainly a flaw and maybe malware was inserted in the programming of her followers...


5 posted on 02/16/2017 6:10:21 PM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dang!

This is worse than Russian Hacking.


6 posted on 02/16/2017 6:12:55 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (Brought to you from Turtle Island, otherwise known as 'So-Called North America')
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have serious doubts about AI but it wouldn’t take much intelligence to outwit the Dems if you had a solid strategy.


7 posted on 02/16/2017 6:13:12 PM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Scrambler Bob

Artificial Intellegence to beat Artificial Democrat Brains.


8 posted on 02/16/2017 6:13:56 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (Brought to you from Turtle Island, otherwise known as 'So-Called North America')
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What a fascinating article. Thanks for posting it.


9 posted on 02/16/2017 6:14:12 PM PST by Vermont Lt (Brace. Brace. Brace. Heads down. Do not look up.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The simple answer is that they ran their campaign to win the election. His opponent assumed the win was hers and did not Work for it.

Old fashioned hard work won the election


10 posted on 02/16/2017 6:15:02 PM PST by Spruce
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Analytics may have got him there, but human pressers like he gave today - really a SOTU - will keep him there. His approval is moving towards 60%: the mandate at which the Left can be destroyed with the people’s approval.


11 posted on 02/16/2017 6:16:03 PM PST by txhurl (The LEFT are screaming at the Tsunami, and the Sky, trying to set fire to the Ocean- S.Tom)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Analytics may have got him there, but human pressers like he gave today - really a SOTU - will keep him there. His approval is moving towards 60%: the mandate at which the Left can be destroyed with the people’s approval.


12 posted on 02/16/2017 6:16:03 PM PST by txhurl (The LEFT are screaming at the Tsunami, and the Sky, trying to set fire to the Ocean- S.Tom)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Hey, here's another idea:
Maybe the American people were just sick and tired of
Obama and his Democrats, hate Hillary and don't want
anything to do with them anymore, so they voted for Trump.
13 posted on 02/16/2017 6:18:46 PM PST by StormEye
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Whatever he used, it beat the natural stupidity of liberals.


14 posted on 02/16/2017 6:22:24 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Conservatives love America for what it is. Liberals hate America for the same reason.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They just can’t handle the thought that they legitimately lost in a fair fight.

Always an excuse.

Graduate level blame shifting going on since election day.


15 posted on 02/16/2017 6:24:30 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Scrambler Bob
This is worse than Russian Russain Hacking.
16 posted on 02/16/2017 6:42:15 PM PST by pfflier
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A lot of speculation in the article, not unlike those wacky Ancient Alien shows on History Channel.

But even if we suspend logic for a moment and accept the premise, is any of that illegal? Is there anything that would have prevented any other politician from doing the same thing? Or is the article designed to make it seem as though Bannon and Trump and a few others are somehow evil because they’re smarter and more tech savvy than team Illary?


17 posted on 02/16/2017 6:44:48 PM PST by Two Kids' Dad (((( More and More Winning! ))))
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To: Spruce
More importantly, he used the weapons of the techno-left (Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc.) against them.

It's almost like he has internalized Sun Tzu's "The Art of War".

Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack. -Sun Tzu

18 posted on 02/16/2017 6:44:58 PM PST by Crolis ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it." -GKC)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There’s a brand new book called, “The Undoing Project” written by Michael Lewis that talks about big data and two Israelis who have done a bunch of work in this area.


19 posted on 02/16/2017 7:04:24 PM PST by Portcall24
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To: Vermont Lt

Another one:

Trump Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/3516872/posts


20 posted on 02/16/2017 7:10:18 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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