Deceptive Patterns
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Dark Patterns and Epistemic Ignorance: an Educational Crisis

Author
Caroline Stockman & Richard Wilson
Date
17 Nov 2022
Publisher
European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Focus
Ethics & Responsibility
Category
Academic Scholar

It is argued not only has the ’knower’ or knowledge seeker become the ‘known’ (sometimes without knowing it), their ability ‘to know’ is also intentionally manipulated by dark patterns, which makes the crisis an educational one.

In this paper, we discuss how online AI stimulates epistemic ignorance. Early visions of online information search and retrieval processes proposed a utopian and empowering space for individuals. Today’s crisis paradoxically presents us with an unprecedented accumulation of new information and access to it, yet also the colonisation of this knowledge by those who seek to erode critical thought. By ‘epistemic ignorance’, we mean the condition which is systematically created by the patterns of mis- and disinformation that prevent knowledge seekers from gaining verified knowledge. We argue not only has the ‘knower’ or knowledge seeker become the ‘known’ (sometimes without knowing it), their ability ‘to know’ is also intentionally manipulated by dark patterns.