A film still from Minority Report (2002). In the year 2054, Precrime, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals by use of foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs".
A still from the movie "Minority Report" (2002). Set in 2054, Precrime, a specialized police force, apprehends criminals using the foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "Precogs".
To start 2022 with optimism, I invited a few friends to a year-in-review workshop I hosted at an Airbnb in Calgary. Just after Christmas, we would come together to confess the challenges, failures, successes, and significant life events of the past year and set goalposts to aim for in the new year.
I chose a 22nd floor apartment in the East Village overlooking downtown. If we needed a change from the panoramic view of the Calgary skyline, we could move to the hot tub and steam room. It's a property I wouldn't be able to afford to rent or buy, so I was delighted to experience the home of someone who could for a day with my friends. It was surprisingly affordable!
After agreeing to the terms and conditions and charging my credit card, a screen popped up that I had never seen before:
I was surprised that Airbnb had implemented what appeared to be predictive artificial intelligence - algorithms that treat some guests more equally than others. This flies counter to its corporate philosophy, which proclaims: "Bias, prejudice, racism, and hate have no place on our platform."
More specifically, Airbnb writes:
"The Airbnb community is committed to building a world where people of all backgrounds feel welcome and respected, no matter how far they have traveled from home. This commitment is based on two core principles that apply to both Airbnb hosts and guests: inclusion and respect."
Airbnb has failed on both promises. They should have added this in the fine print:
"The principles of inclusion and respect apply unless our authoritarian algorithm gives itself the power to override history, truth, and the Canadian legal system and play judge, jury, God, civil law enforcement, criminologist, prophet, and psychic."
I was convicted of a "thought crime," although one had never crossed my mind.
I was labeled a home-wrecker. Airbnb was silent when I asked for transparency about how this profile of me was created. Silence is an effective enabler of bias and inequality. I am an unwanted guest and my reputation has been defamed. Because I don't have the resources to hire a lawyer, I'm unable to fight this slander against me.
Citizens around the world are becoming numb to their outrage when politicians, judges, health advisors, and corporate officials break their promises, oaths, and commitments. It has become commonplace. And there is no way to hold them accountable. They reassure those they serve by saying what they want to hear. It buys them a little time to avoid the backlash when they do the opposite of what they promised and were elected to do. All political parties do it. So one's vote lacks the power to stop it. The more it happens, the more apathetic everyone becomes. The breaking of one's word no longer has the stigma that it once did. It is the new normal.
This is the first time I've knowingly experienced the tyranny of algorithms. This mathematical construct is often created with AI's deeplearning model. It's a method of learning that lacks transparency. Once an algorithm is formed, no one knows how it evolved, what information it used, and what biases may be built into it. Scientists can make educated guesses, but the truth is hidden in the trillions of journeys that photons make at near light speed on the supercomputer highways of microcomputer chip infrastructures.
It is a mystery, bordering on the mystical, how deep learning assimilates data to accurately predict outcomes, better than humans and previous technologies. Lacking consciousness or a soul, it is nevertheless entrusted with deciding what freedoms I am allowed to enjoy. It punishes people, not for breaking the law, but for probable future actions. No one is allowed to question its conclusions because no one knows how it arrived at them.
Like vaccine passports, algorithms deprive you of your freedom. Like a tyrannical, fascist dictator, it overrides the power of the judiciary. Those who believe in its value say it democratizes the world because it is capable of using objectivity and logic, untouched by human biases. It is capable of being fairer than any human judge. Unfortunately at this stage of its development, it appears AI is infected with human bias by the information with which it is trained, and it is unable to identify what is true or false, and has not been trained to understand ethics.
With Algorithms, no one is responsible or accountable for the decisions it makes. It is a mysterious, invisible higher power, the algorithmic god, in which we place our trust and faith to make decisions for us, to reward the righteous and judge the fallen.
In any case, it protects the property of its owner, increases the profits of his company and investors. That's what counts. Not the constitutional rights and liberties of the people.
Airbnb's bold and blatant use of dictatorial powers to limit my rights and choices based on zero evidence, no testimony, no prior convictions, and no credible due process of law is tyrannical and fascist. It is one of many global high-tech companies that are bypassing democracy and implementing China's social surveillance system, powered by AI technologies that reward or restrict citizens' access to services and privileges based on the whims of tyrannical algorithms and dictators.
What makes the automated system's judgment of me particularly invalid, and even more offensive, is how I tried to prevent a beautiful home from getting vandalized the first time I booked an Airbnb stay.
Ten years ago in Edmonton, Alberta, I had just heard of the company and its app. I used it to book a room in a beautiful home in Edmonton. When I arrived at the house and walked in, there were about ten males, about 18 years old, walking around the house in their underwear, interacting with their cell phones, but not with each other.
An older man of 30 came out of one of the rooms and said, "What are you doing here?"
I said, "I booked a room for the weekend."
"We rented the whole house for the weekend with the owner, you must be mistaken," he said angrily. I grabbed my phone to show him the confirmation I had, but my phone was dead. I started to go into the kitchen to plug it in and get it working when I was interrupted by a startling bang and crash coming from the basement. It sounded like someone had fallen through a wall downstairs.
The 30-year-old yelled downstairs, "Come up for a minute, we have a visitor."
The person who fell in the basement swore as he tried to get up, and as he started up the stairs he yelled, "Did the boys clean up the blood on the kitchen floor that I told them to do an hour ago?
I realized with certainty that I was not safe. From the beginning, the scenario seemed very off and uncomfortable. Now I knew it was liable to be violent. These guests had rented the house for the weekend for some gang ritual - that was my guess.
When the basement guy saw me, he said, “What are you doing here? You are trespassing!”
I said, “I booked a room for the weekend, but I’m thinking I have the wrong address.”
As I started to leave, he blocked me, and with his face in mine, and an intimidating grin, asked, “W–h–y?" drawing out the word. "Don’t you like us?”
I replied, “I don’t. That’s why I am leaving.”
Everyone laughed at my honesty as I left the house, quickly.
When I finally reached Airbnb and the Owner, he realized he had given me the address of another property he owned, and not the correct one. He offered to pick me up and drive me to the correct one.
When we met, I told him what happened to me in the wrong house. And very clearly and seriously I told him, “Your house is going to be destroyed. You need to get those guys out of there. It’s some kind of a gang initiation ritual."
He laughed as if I were joking or foolish. “No those are just a bunch of high school guys who are graduating soon and getting together to celebrate. They’re nice guys, they won’t do any harm.”
I told him he should go over there after dropping me off because the energy of violence and destruction I sensed was unmistakable.
Late afternoon of the next day the owner called me. He had gone to the house after dropping me off. The "nice graduating students" had started drinking, smoking cigarettes and drugs throughout the front and back yards, even inside the house. He asked them to keep the noise down, and use ashtrays, and left, believing in their ability to be decent.
When he came back Sunday morning, everyone was still sleeping and passed out, and the house had been destroyed.
In the brief time I had been in the house, I saw how masterfully it had been constructed and designed. There were built-in library cabinets made of polished wood with glass doors, refinished hardwood floors, and expensive and tasteful period-appropriate furnishings throughout. The Owner said he was a carpenter, and had renovated a few homes in the area. Renting them with Airbnb was his way of sharing his talent and love for restoring homes.
The countless hours of planning, measuring, cutting, sanding, and polishing were gone in less than a night. Weaponized tools were used to smash every detail, wreck every table, couch, or tiled feature. Blood, beer, drugs, and burned cigarette butts littered every carpet and floor. The house stunk like it had been lived in by vagrants for years.
Sick to my stomach with compassion, I told him, “We are living in a different era from the one we grew up in. It’s foolish to assume the best from people, and not trust your instincts. I am sorry that your faith in people was so violently attacked, and that your home - which you put so much love into restoring was trashed. "
“I tried my best to warn you and to convey to you that this was going to happen. It shows you have your heart in the right place, but you must also trust your instincts.“
I was a witness for his Airbnb insurance claim. Unfortunately, Airbnb rarely ever follows through with their glittering promise of million-dollar insurance coverage. It is challenging to get reimbursed for the true value of damages unless every receipt is kept and every minute of labour is documented and proven to recover the cost of damages.
Incidences like these, loudly and virally reported on by mainstream news, and extended farther and wider by social media, increase the public's fears and justify increased security and loss of privacy. Although Airbnb says their data shows that damages to property are significantly lower than statistics for hotels and other kinds of accommodation, apparently, there is no risk too low to prevent increased security measures.
This is how corporations justify increased intrusions into our privacy, taking away our constitutional rights, and implementing tyrannical rules and unequal treatment. It is the reason we are making Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence into gods. We have lost our instincts, and can no longer sense a predator, and are deceived so often we no longer believe what our eyes are telling us.
The tyrannical dictators of this world love to use fear and human suffering to justify and implement these technocratic systems of surveillance and control. It doesn’t eliminate fear or suffering. It increases human suffering exponentially and keeps it invisible, or at least silent. A drop of blood on a carpet may never again be seen because the violence of an individual against another has been usurped by the elimination of all potential criminals, and only those who do not rebel remain.
What can be done? If you experience the tyranny of an algorithm or any other false god or dictator, speak out. Tell the politician or corporation why it is wrong, and how it felt to be discriminated against, and how your constitutional rights were stepped on. Join together with others who agree that this must be stopped, and do what is necessary to stop it.
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UPDATE: Since I wrote this article, I discovered postings about the same pop-up message appearing on customers cell phones when they tried to book a larger private room. Hosts and guests were not informed by Airbnb prior to its implementation just days before New Year's Eve. Nor could anyone agree on what characteristics or histories would trigger the AI algorithms to identify guests as being potential home wreckers.
Many members believe there is no algorithm involved, it is a randomly applied message that prevents some guests from renting an entire home, thereby forcing them to purchase a hotel room or shared room. Airbnb has suffered backlash from hoteliers for dominating the travel market and leaving them bare and dry of guests. No one knows the truth, because Airbnb has not made any official statements. Airbnb hosts are angry too because the pop-up message lost them guests when it blocked their ability to book a room.