Wolfram Alpha: A Force For Good Or a New Propaganda Outlet?

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A sneak preview of Wolfram Alpha

The Wolfram|Alpha "knowledge engine" has been much discussed but generally unseen by the general public. Now you can watch Stephen Wolfram's Harvard Law Center talk on YouTube

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Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, gave a webcast talk about Wolfram|Alpha at Harvard this week (see Bobbie Johnson's post, First look: Wolfram Alpha shows itself in public) and now a 10-minute videohas been posted by the Berkman Center.

There's also Stephen Wolfram discusses Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine, which is the full 1 hour 65 minutes. The blurb says:

There's been great anticipation around Stephen Wolfram's ambitious project to create a comprehensive "computational knowledge engine." The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University will host a sneak preview of the Wolfram|Alpha system, and a discussion of its underlying technology and implications. Participants will include Wolfram|Alpha founder Stephen Wolfram and Professor of Law Jonathan Zittrain. Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, the author of A New Kind of Science, and now the creator of Wolfram|Alpha. He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research.

ReadWriteWeb has readable screen shots, the short video, and another YouTube video that provides "a look behind the scenes" at the Wolfram|Alpha data centre.

It's clearly going to be a useful tool, rather than a search engine -- as Wolfram says, "we're trying to compute things -- and I can imagine using it. But I can't see it replacing Google for all day use, and any "Google killer" talk seems way over the top. On the other hand, this is just the beginning. What do you think?

MONDAY, MAY 4, 2009

Wolfram Alpha: A Force For Good Or a New Propaganda Outlet?

Everyone agrees that the "next big thing" on the web is Wolfram Alpha. Instead of searching like Google, Wolfram Alpha will use artificial intelligence to directly answer your question. 

There is no doubt that the guy behind Wolfram Alpha, Stephen Wolfram, is a genius. And I have absolutely no evidence that Dr. Wolfram is himself a propagandist.

However, it strikes me that something touted by all the mainstream media as having the potential to replace Google, - and that gives "official" answers to questions - has alot of potential for propaganda.

For example, if I type in "Iraq War" into Wolfram Alpha's engine, will I get back an answer like

A war based on false pretenses which was so expensive that it has bankrupted America

or will I get back something like

A necessary campaign in fighting terrorism and making the world safe for democracy

If the later, it will just be a new outlet for propaganda.

Especially given that the Department of Homeland Security apparently considers everyone in the "alternative media" to be terrorists (see this,this and this), there is little doubt that government propagandists would at least like to use Wolfram Alpha to "guide" web surfers to the "correct" answer.

Wolfram Alpha will launch in a matter of days. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out.

I predict that - at least initially - Wolfram Alpha will be pretty useful. But once millions of people become hooked and start relying on the search engine for their basic research, we will have to fight to keep it unbiased, and keep the propagandists' grubby fingers off of the whole thing.