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DraftKings is using AI to behaviorally target chronic gamblers

570 points · 432 comments · paimapi

tedivm · 1790700196 · focus · HN ↗
ProPublica had one of their reports work with gambling addition experts to see how DraftKings would respond to someone presenting signs of a gambling problem. It's a hell of a read, and makes it clear that this company is full of people with absolutely no ethics whatsoever.
<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/draftkings-sports-gambling-problem-vip-fanduel" rel="nofollow">https://www.propublica.org/article/draftkings-sports-gamblin...
1. WheelsAtLarge · 1790703876 · focus · HN ↗
  People in companies that are a negative public good are by definition unethical. I'm not surprised by anything they do. The real problem is how we've let these companies infiltrate so much of our society so fast. I can't consume any ad supported media without getting some ad about them. This company really defines the phrase "money talks"
  1. jmyeet · 1790707616 · focus · HN ↗
    This falls under the umbrella of "there's no ethical consumption under capitalism". Everything you do supports somebody who's doing something bad. There's really no way to avoid it. Heck, it was even a plot point on The Good Place.
    The issue is that our economic system is coercive. You need a job. Now this doesn't excuse you from doing any job but you also need to live.
    Take the big tech companies. They're essentially military contractors now. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc are functionally no different to RTX, Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
    But should you treat someone who works on Android the same as someone who works out on AI systems for military targeting? Probably not. Also, Palantir is fundamentally more evil than any of these tech companies. So it's tricky.
    I do agree that online gambling as a whole is deeply unethical. There is no positive byproduct of this. Your salary is paid by people losing money, probably through addiction. And yes, you can say people have free will but you're still preying on and growing addiction.
    gruez · 1790707752 · focus · HN ↗
    >The issue is that our economic system is coercive. You need a job.
    That's hardly the problem of the economic system, and more of a underlying problem with the the universe (ie. entropy and all).
    gretch · 1790711339 · focus · HN ↗
    When people say “the problem is that our economic system…”, I’ve stared to simply ask, “which economic system is the one where you do not need a job?”
    jmyeet · 1790718554 · focus · HN ↗
    One that isn't built on debt bondage and a massive wealth transfer to the old and wealthy. Student debt, housing debt and medical debt are all designed to keep you a complaint worker who will increasingly never escape that debt. We have increasingly just replaced the dukes and kings of old with centibillionaires. Together we're bouldering towards what many of us call "neofeudalism".
    This is one thing that Karl Marx and Adam Smith agreed on: landlords are parasitic that reduce economic output. It's another way we're returning to a virtual aristocracy as land gets concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
    This is all going to further fall apart once we don't need everyone to be employed. Arguably we're already there. What are the rest of the people meant to do? Starve and die? At some point you realize the only way forward is to collectively own the wealth you help create.
    gruez · 1790727064 · focus · HN ↗
    >This is one thing that Karl Marx and Adam Smith agreed on: landlords are parasitic that reduce economic output.
    But going back to the original premise, everyone still has to work, even without landlords. The soviets even codified it as a crime: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_parasitism_(offense)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_parasitism_(offense)
    jmyeet · 1790729086 · focus · HN ↗
    We will eventually reach the point where not everyone needs a job. Many basic functions of life like agriculture and food production will be automated. Construction will probably be automated.
    AI is being used to reduce the labor pool to suppress wages. You not only save on wages for laid off people but the remaining workers need their jobs and won't be asking for raises. They'll probably be doing extra unpaid work to boot.
    If 20% of the workforce is no longer necessary, society as it stands now will collapse. That's the point.

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