The Development and Dangers of AI

Post #5

April 5, 2021

Nathaniel Bryant

Analysis: "In the Age of AI" (full film) by FRONTLINE

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The movie "In the Age of AI" (full film) by FRONTLINE, discussed and analyzes A.I. and its impact on our culture, privacy, and our future. AI or Artificial Intelligence is developing at rapid paces and continues to become integrated into different and new jobs as well as aspects in our personal everyday life. Now while this can provide major improvements to human life, there is a darker side that accompanies the advancement of AI.

Some things that spurred up concern and fear for the future spanned from problems in current industries, online and personal privacy, national security, and who will have control of it the technology.

Privacy is a big part of how we are monitored, for good and bad. The benefits of data beyond privacy can benefit companies in the sense that these AI's collect data in the direct purpose to serve the user to the fullest extent. They take pieces of information to create an algorithm for helping users to find what they need from advertising, news, and communication.

Source: "Surveillance Capitalism" (1:09:09)

A more negative side would be the process of how these corporations get our data and how it can be used to control us. Social Media is an example of technology that is used to collect our data for use to monitor us for algorithms and data tracking. An example is "Surveillance Capitalism" (1:09:09), which is set to focus on monitor private human thinking to predict what people are doing and what can be done to take advantage of them. Alastair Mactaggart was another guest in the movie who got involved because he asked a question about privacy and Google after seeing it in the news. The answer he received was "You would be horrified if you knew about how much we knew about you" (1:10:54). These companies can and will take note of who you text, how you text, and when you text, as well as what you look at, what makes you happy, and what makes you sad. They take your searches and all of your deepest and most private information to create an algorithm for you. Now while this seems like a helpful tool, it opens up the door of control. These companies would treat the human populous like guinea pigs and use them to test their methods. All of their tracking, ad pushing, and feed manipulation are there to control the masses. Simply put, they study you to fabricate how you will act now and in the future for their gain while people blindly accept it under the guise of easier living and accessibility. In the end, the main shifting of data is to also benefit and improve the AI. 

In terms of national security, these companies work to use AI to manipulate the masses for their benefit to control them. Facebook was given money to manipulate millions of users or the 2016 presidential election as well as the Brexit referendum. This showed that anyone who has enough funds can do as they want to push these companies to manipulate their users for their gain. Its not just the problem that people with enough money can do it, but that these companies can already do this with ease.

In terms of online security, Alastair Mactaggart, got around 600,000 signatures to go and propose his idea to the government to let allow the people to have a say in whether their data can be sold or not. It passed unanimously and it to pass. Now people can see what has been tracked and can stop sites from doing it as well. Unlike most companies, Mark Smith, the president of Mircosoft came out in support of this as well.

When examing who will have control as well as where most of the fear can be seen in China as an example. China is rapidly catching up to America in terms of AI and integrating it into their lives. Xi Jinping, the president said that they would catch up with the US in foreign intelligence in 2025 and lead the world by 2030.

Source: AI Scan Identification; (17:17)

China leads the world in E-commerce and Drone delivery, and a cashless society where the currency is facial recognition. One of the scariest things the AI can do is take all your data and use it to make an algorithm for how you think and determine how your loan should be (15:18). It accesses 5000 personal features and creates the loan. The government can identity, track, and recognize you in 0.01 second. If it cannot describe you it can identify what you are wearing, how you look, and how old you are (17:17). How you walk, move, stand, and dress is all taken into consideration. China essentially a surveillance state. They can predict who were be most likely a terrorist and force people, mostly Muslim, into re-education camps. Torture and deaths happen in the camps frequently. These Muslims who are persecuted and live here are called "Wiggers".

AI has numerous benefits and cons, but ultimately it is advancing at a rapid rate and will exceed beyond much of our understanding. There are many good things AI provides for us to make every aspect of life easier. In this conquest for safety, accessibility, and technological advancement comes the darker side of AI. AI is a great tool but only becomes stronger through collecting personal and private data. The issue comes down to how much are we willing to sacrifice for AI and what can be done to keep privacy without slowing the US down to fall behind China. AI, whether we like it or not, is the future of technology.

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Source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZ_lvDgevk