Blog Post #9

 In the Age of A.I.

Artificial Intelligence Graphic

It could be said that Artificial Intelligence is just as prevalent in the world that we live in today as gas stations - it is everywhere. Artificial Intelligence "makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks." Artificial Intelligence, or A.I., can be seen in technological inventions such as virtual assistance (Alexa, Siri, Google Home, etc.), self-driving cars, and facial recognition. The term Artificial Intelligence was coined in the 1950s, and its use and popularity has only grown since then. There has been a technology race ever since in order to be one of the top Artificial Intelligence powerhouses. As the video In the Age of AI states, "in the age of A.I., where data is the new oil, China is the new Saudi Arabia." This has only led other countries, such as the United States, to become even more determined to come up with the next best Artificial Intelligence technology.

Ke Jie playing Go against AlphaGo

Google created an AI system called AlphaGo, which battled the Go game master, Ke Jie, in 2016. Ke Jie was known as the world's best player of Go - a complex board game with millions of possibilities of moves. This game, held in Seoul, South Korea, was televised and streamed massively. The game was watched by tens of millions of people, and was so important because it would offer an answer to a new, ever-growing question: can machines overtake human intelligence? Ke Jie was confident before the match, stating that he believed "that human intuition is still too advanced for A.I. to have caught up." Google's AlphaGo is a computer program that was fed the rules of Go, and a database of historical games of Go. From here, the technology was designed to teach itself. This is a form of Artificial Intelligence is called deep learning - the program mimics the neural networks of the human brain. These games were so eye-opening, and a little frightening, because it showed that A.I. could produce moves that were so creative and unfathomable to the human brain. Ke Jie won 1/5 of the games against AlphaGo.

Graphic of A.I. Taking Over Jobs

The video In the Age of AI states that people believe "about 50% of jobs will be somewhat or extremely threatened by A.I. in the next 15 years or so." Machines with Artificial Intelligence that can completes tasks such as reading reports and learning routines are becoming more and more prevalent in stores, factories, and offices. Job positions that follow routines, and are based around the transferring of data, will slowly be taken over by Artificial Intelligence technologies, and automation. Examples of these jobs include cashier, payroll, finance, and HR department positions. Interestingly, Molly Kinder stated in the video that "women disproportionally hold the jobs that today are at highest risk of automation." Companies are so drawn to the utilization of A.I. and automation to complete jobs over people because it is more cost-effective. Consequently, this leaves a great percent of people (many of those people being women) without jobs. A.I. will continue to weasel its way into every single industry, and this will only worsen the increase in inequality that the U.S. has seen for over 44 years now.

Graphic Representing Big Tech Companies and A.I.

As Shoshana Zuboff explained in the video, In the Age of AI; "We thought that we were searching Google. We had no idea that Google was searching us." Google is just one example of a big technology company that utilizes their algorithms to intelligently and subtly process, save, and take advantage of data from its users. The video explained how "A.I. is a set of tools that helps you maximize an objective function, and that objective function initially will simply be make more money."

Facebook is another example of a company that abuses their power of user data and information. Facebook uses this data to shape what advertisements users are receiving, which in-turn creates a great amount of revenue for the company. To take it a step further, however, Facebook has done a couple of "social contagion" experiments. One of these experiments was in 2010, when they influenced 340,000 more people to vote in the midterm elections, through online messaging on the app. Click here for more information. The fact that Facebook can influence their to vote, without the users' knowledge of this even happening, is astonishing. Another example, which is even more drastic in my opinion, was when Facebook adjusted certain feeds in order to make their users happy/sad - this was seen as a success when learned that they could, in fact, alter people's emotions. To learn more about this experiment, click here.

Surveillance

Privacy isn't just being invaded through the use of different online apps or websites, but throughout our every day lives. China, for example, "is on its way to building a total surveillance state" (In the Age of AI). With this, comes the issues of identity theft - especially within the world of facial recognition. As we've seen throughout all of these various examples, Artificial Intelligence has opened a whole new world of technological possibilities, and with this comes many pros and cons. While A.I. is quick and productive, it also offers a lot of power to the people behind the scenes controlling it - the big technology companies. A.I. will never diminish, but instead it will continue to grow. With this being said, it is vital that people keep in mind their privacy rights while utilizing different online platforms.