Warning investors not to get lost in their own filter bubbles is a regular plank of this column. As behavioral economics has taught us, it is easy to get caught up in our own biases, beliefs and preexisting prejudices. Human psychology can be affected by outside forces in subtle ways we may not even be aware of.
This has potentially negative ramifications for anyone’s investment process.
I was reminded of this again this past weekend when we had a couple and their kids over for some swimming and a barbecue.
All of their kids, ages 6 to 14, seemed permanently attached to their iPads. But when their oldest asked me “Why does Alexa hate Jesus?” I was taken aback.
Apparently, he had seen this video, which seems to suggest Alexa is not a fan of Jesus Christ (the video was later shown to be a hoax). So I suggested we ask Alexa a few questions to see if she (it?) really does dislike Christ. We asked:
“When was Jesus born?”
“Who is Jesus Christ?”
“Is Jesus Christ Lord and Savior?”
The answers satisfied the boy, who attends a Catholic school in the New York. Although that hoax was debunked, it raised a bigger and more interesting question: Is there a liberal bias to technology?
This question came up recently when Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey told CNN that the company does not allow personal ideology to influence the determination of “what is and is not appropriate behavior on the platform.” But during the discussion, he said “We need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is more left-leaning,”