How Algorithms Have Become a Venom

Have you ever been surprised by social media’s accuracy in showing you what you want to see? One moment, you’re thinking of something, and the next, that same thing is at the top of your ‘Explore’ page. The invisible hand of algorithms is at work here, getting more clairvoyant by the hour. But though at first glance they may seem helpful, they only serve corporations’ incremental profit.

Machine learning algorithms have been the new technological fad for the last decade or so, driving ad revenue and Internet traffic through the roof. This is not a new observation. Yet, after playing a certain superhero game, I noticed a striking resemblance between this phenomenon and what fictional stories have warned us about for a while.

The Spider-Man of it all

In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games, an alien goo is co-opted by a corporation to cure the founder’s son, Harry, of his debilitating illness. Coincidentally, Harry is also the titular Spider-Man’s best friend. As the story progresses, the goo’s true nature is revealed: not a healing agent, but a parasitic organism that controls its host, distorts their personality, and unleashes their worst impulses. Even the moral paragon Spider-Man isn’t immune to its influence, getting infected for a time after Harry passes it on to save his life.

The black suit starts off by giving Harry superpowers and indestructible skin, making the once-frail man virtually invulnerable. It seemed like the answer to all of his problems at first—a miracle too good to be true. Harry talks to this alien in his head, and he hears a voice in return, a voice that sounds reassuring and strengthens his resolve. He wears it as a living suit; the alien feeds him dreams, warping them beyond recognition. The longer he wears it, the harder it is to take off. He becomes reliant on it, pushing away his friends, in pursuit of a good deed gone bad. As the unfairness of life wears Harry down, the suit—living off vitriol—heightens his hate.

It is a Venom.

As the story progresses, the goo’s true nature is revealed: not a healing agent, but a parasitic organism that controls its host, distorts their personality, and unleashes their worst impulses.

It is no surprise that the best-selling Spider-Man comic right now reinterprets the concept of this suit as Artificial Intelligence rather than an alien. Because what it does is shockingly similar to that of modern social media algorithms. It gives you instant, straightforward answers to your problems by taking away something you may never realize. Though their intelligence may be artificial, their effects on people are very real.

Let me convince you.

Algorithms according to research

Almost everyone in the world uses the Internet, whether it is scrolling social media or scouring search engines. It has become a requirement of daily life, not only to communicate with one another but to survive, find jobs, and make a living. And algorithms have cornered every inch of the Internet, the web’s dominant inhabitant.

This unseen force counsels every person to their destination. Algorithms have become our shepherd inside the net’s vast expanse of content. There has to be an unspoken trust there. Before you click a link or read a post, you must implicitly believe everything is working in your favor. But does it?

Research in artificial intelligence has discovered a close link between machine learning algorithms in social media and epistemic isolation. In short, epistemic isolation is when someone has limited access to particular information. With algorithms being biased toward the opinions of their users, what appears on your explore page will most likely be what reinforces your preexisting beliefs, which, in the worst-case scenario, could lead to political radicalization. Restricting people to content they already like or agree with makes their worldview self-centered, like a horse wearing blinders.

What’s more, the multibillion-dollar companies that keep social media afloat profit from making their algorithms this way. By having post after post that agrees with each user’s opinions, everyone feels empowered in their little personal bubbles, encouraging them to be defensive against outside knowledge. When an aberrant post that does not conform to their worldview breaches their bunkers, they are ready to become keyboard warriors, coming out of the trenches to retaliate with machine gun hate speech and insult grenades.

Who profits from the online culture war? None other than the ones who facilitate it, who run ads on the warzone, who get sponsors out of traffic and engagement.

Research in artificial intelligence has discovered a close link between machine learning algorithms in social media and epistemic isolation.

It wasn’t always this way. As a point of reference, Twitter used to display posts chronologically, showing content from accounts you follow, which meant there would be an end to your scrolling once you caught up with your friends’ updates. Now, X prioritizes posts based on the number of likes, comments, and views. This means that the more contentious the post, the more it accumulates comments, which results in it getting pushed by the algorithm, getting even more comments—a self-congratulatory snake eating its own hit tweet.

This is before considering the pay-to-play model of blue checkmarks and promotions being favorably featured on top, even when you intend to search for a fact or news story. Algorithms curate what you can and can’t see about the world. All this to say is that even if algorithms were first created to help wayward visitors traverse the web, their existence does not aid you, not anymore.

Going beyond social media, search engines have also ceased to be a safe space for simple information gathering. Not when generative AI decides conclusions for you, summarizing research without you getting to choose what to take away. With it being a default option on Google search engines, the spread of misconceptions becomes a more common occurrence. It's getting easier and easier to be wrong, but feel right.

What does this have to do with video games?

Like the black suit that Spider-Man wears, which players can control in the game, algorithms make you feel powerful. They endow you with righteousness, backing up what you feel and think of the world. The catch is that it preys on intense emotion, thriving on conflict. They don’t reward passivity and compassion; they reward spur-of-the-moment grandstanding. A brief moment of Internet notoriety rewards every fire-filled activity.

Just as the black suit remembers memories of its host, these algorithms may know you more than you know yourself. They profit from that information to categorize you into a target market. Not dissimilar to how the suit weaponizes its memories of Spider-Man once it separates and becomes Venom, the main antagonist that players have to overcome.

As the obsidian tendrils of Venom spread across the city, indoctrinating the masses into mindless zombies, so too do algorithms parrot hoaxes by fear mongers like oil to a wildfire. Rumors replicate so fast that people start to doubt themselves, too affected by emotion to crosscheck sources. Conspiracies become convincing when it’s hard to distinguish information from opinion.

It's getting easier and easier to be wrong, but feel right.

When the top-rated comment is from a blue checkmark bot, copy-pasting rage bait, then you know it’s becoming more and more apocalyptic. The current state of the Internet is not too distinct from the city seen in Spider-Man 2’s last act, with its infrastructures pierced by coal-black coils—devoid of people.

Radicalization and violence have overtaken even pop culture discourse. Inside the community of video game enjoyers, where fans should, in theory, have a civil conversation about what they like or don’t like in a game, hate speech runs rampant. We are living in an era where some consider inclusivity a negative quality that detracts from the experience of play.

In Spider-Man 2, controversies surrounded its release concerning the game’s choice of playable characters. A vocal minority was furious about Mary Jane’s continued inclusion in missions, even going as far as critiquing her face model. Others denounced the prevalence of Miles Morales as the second playable Spider-Man, feeling it takes away from the superhero power fantasy by pushing an “agenda.”

With controversies being a gold mine for engagement, it’s no wonder that algorithms facilitate racism and bigotry; they attract people, both for and against these opinions, all unwilling donors to the parasitic program. The fringes don’t have to be popular to be successful. All they have to do is get attention, and the algorithm does the work for them, becoming megaphones for intolerant voices. But video games, as an art form, must not relent.

Developers have the unenviable job of separating genuine criticism that they can improve upon and rage-bait that confuses passion with substance. Consumers will always clamor for something, but if video games are to be seen as more than commercial content, then their creators should let the games speak for themselves, with a human vision that surpasses algorithms.

In that case, art is the natural anti-venom to algorithms. Ideas expressed through art defy calculation and established rules. Art evokes emotion not through provocative content but through its innately sincere storytelling. Art affects everyone differently. Unlike algorithms, art should not simply feed you what you think you want and agree with your every whim. Instead, it should shock, seduce, and present a perspective of the world you may have never imagined before.

Unlike algorithms, art should not simply feed you what you think you want and agree with your every whim. Instead, it should shock, seduce, and present a perspective of the world you may have never imagined before.

“Rather than ideas competing freely on their merits, algorithms amplify or suppress the reach of messages… introducing an unprecedented form of interference in the free exchange of ideas that is often overlooked,” explained Professor Kai Riemer and Sandra Peter from the University of Sydney Business School.

More than a decade ago, Facebook pioneered this recommendation algorithm, popularizing its usage to be copied by competitors. Now, Facebook dons a new suit and tie as Meta, and its new rule is to roll back progress, dismantling their hateful conduct policy, allowing the LGBTQ+ community to be vulnerable to abuse.

Guess what the combination of a controversy-fueling algorithm + no oversight results in?

The anti-venom against algorithms

The modern digital ecosystem benefits from venomous algorithms. They are not regulated responsibly for our betterment; instead lab-grown to be corporate profit-making machines. And in the end, that is what all this is about. Both the suit and algorithms strip their user of responsibility. If your view of the outside world is curated to fit your window, and your opinions are made for you, you cannot imagine alternatives.

Spider-Man had numbed himself to pain after a loved one's death in the previous game. Wearing the black suit provides disinhibition, so that he can be free of his feelings and agency. By using it, he doesn’t have to face the consequences of his actions, or his words. He copes by closing himself off from the world.

In the game’s final act, a sobered-up Spider-Man has to reach within himself to regain his sense of responsibility, cleansing the city of Venom. Video games, being driven by artistic impulse atop commercial value, have the ability to cross boundaries, to not simply be what is asked for, but what is needed. They can send their torch to the darkness of a world consumed by algorithms and hope that it clears away the chaos, shining a better way out.

The cure to prejudice is perspective. When rights are being taken away, representation matters more than ever. A strong voice can break the echo chamber, piercing filter bubbles and opening individuals to a world full of points of view other than their own. And what better way to do that than through virtually becoming a different person, one with a different cultural background, personal struggles, and dreams?

There is a side quest in Spider-Man 2 where you get to play as Hailey, a person who is hard of hearing, and the game features a creative way for players to experience her world. In the length of that entire section, the sound is muffled–no music nor voices. She communicates through sign language and text messages. It is appropriately jarring after hours of hearing John Paesano’s incredible theme at every turn.

The cure to prejudice is perspective. When rights are being taken away, representation matters more than ever.

Some may bemoan this optional mission, as you don’t play as the superhero that the game markets and you bought to play. But maybe, having that one mission as a point of comparison, heightens the divide between the life of the ideal power fantasy, swinging from Brooklyn to Queens in less than a minute with booming music, and the quiet meditative life that people experience every day in the real world. The cure to self-righteousness is to be humbled by another point of view.

It is difficult to be kind and understanding when algorithms have become everyone’s personal yes-men, making every conversation a debate and pitting each other like sports teams.

When Spider-Man’s partner, Mary Jane, gets infected by the black suit, she spouts violent words from the depths of her dissatisfied relationship. The suit makes her see her partner’s shortcomings and nothing else. It deflects blame, feeding on her negative emotions. At that moment, Spider-Man has to interrogate himself, without the suit, to reiterate his selfish entitlement. With the blinders off, he practices empathy and saves the woman he loves.

Algorithms pigeonhole discourse into segregated bubbles, quarantined of any facts, where everyone feels that they have the right answer. Unlike Spider-Man 2, our alien invasion came not from the sky, they came from the ‘Cloud’. But if we spend a moment to think for ourselves, without the “aid” of algorithms, maybe there can be mutual understanding. Algorithms are a great power. There’s no mistaking it; they shape what is being talked about and how, tailoring truth based on each user’s search history.

And you know what they say about great power and great responsibility, don’t you?