01. A New Psychological Weapon – Introduction

The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which broke in 2018, was the first time the term psychological weapon, a new type of technology that combines insights from psychology with artificial intelligence, came up. But because weapons are dangerous, there are usually strict rules regulating their use – at least this is true for firearms. But what about “psychological weapons” owned by privately run megacorporations?

Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing in the U.S. Congress in April 2018 was an example of how tech corporations like Facebook have long since emancipated themselves from initial service providers to powerful players at the economic, social and political levels. Zuckerberg’s confession that he was not aware of his responsibility and that he was sorry comes across as a mockery. It demonstrates what we have long been unaware of: how great the influence of social media is on our society and how far the development of new technologies has already progressed, which know us better than we know ourselves.