The Button of Desire

Machine learning and AI are expected to revolutionize a lot of our interactions. The vision seems to be: push this one button and it will immediately give you what you want.

• Remote control: take you to that channel you wanted to watch.
• Toaster: the bread is toasted to just the right crispiness you prefer.
• Website: it chooses for you the flights and the hotels you need to take for your trip.

It’s as if you took several personal assistants and made them super aware of your preferences, so you don’t even have to consciously make the decisions—they make it for you.

The danger with this button is that it might not actually be doing what you think you want. It might seem like it is, but it’s much more sinister.

The danger is that it tells you what you want instead.