Ajuna Soerjadi

Ajuna Soeradi is director of  Data Ethics Expertise Centre. Ajuna is a moral philosopher who focusses on AI ethics. I am specifically interested in the concept of freedom and autonomy in automated decision-making by governmental agencies. Ajuna is interested in how attention economy impacts our autonomy.

The moral impact of technology: attention as a commodity

With only 150 likes, Facebook knows you better than your own parents. From personality and sexual orientation to heart rate and location, companies have an interest in collecting as much data about us as possible. It is a billion-dollar industry that commodifies our attention by crafting detailed profiles of us that divulge our deepest secrets, to predict and influence our future behavior. How to navigate in this complex web of information flows that we do not have insight in or meaningful control over? How do we know what we value in life when even our eye-movements are steered by our choice architecture? Today, we explore what this threat to autonomy entails and what is needed for a future in the info sphere that we can genuinely look forward to.