The Age of AI

I, personally, find this new age of AI to be something rather ominous. I'm no stranger to technology, and for almost 50 years now humanity has essentially depended on devices powered by electricity to sustain itself. However, in combination with how we depend on electronics there's an unmistakable trend which can be observed with how digital technology is evolving. And frankly, in the end this growth may not be for the best.

In my freshman year at HPU, my FYS course was focused on discussing science fiction and philosophy. While there was already quite a bit of talk over how science fiction is becoming science fact, I also remember another critical takeaway that pertains to this discussion. Moore's Law is the theory that the potential of computing power will continue to grow at an exponential rate, leading to computers that are much more efficient arriving before most would even expect. While we're finally nearing the pinnacle of what computers are estimated to ever be capable of, this doesn't change the fact that what we've managed to create already can't be undone. This essentially means that now that we've entered a new age of AI, there's no turning back from what impacts it may have on the world going forward.

The main point the video we watched discussed regarding AI was how it would impact both liberty and security. It talked about things like how China's social credit system is planned to be monitored in public spaces using facial recognition, and how something very similar may be on its way to the US. When thinking about this and taking a look at our own Constitution it feels like a total indictment on our right to privacy the Supreme Court seemingly wants to defend. 

However, when thinking about what goes on already in our American society, more specifically the implementation of security cameras everywhere you go, it makes me want to discuss the common debate over what it means to have privacy be taken away. I, personally, don't agree with the idea of a social security system similar to that of China in the US, but I also don't agree with the idea that we shouldn't allow for cameras to be situated in public places. I believe that liberty and security are a package deal, you can't just let one exist without the other. While it's important for people to be able to feel they have autonomy over their lives, there must also exist measures of protection to keep potentially unstable people in check. If there wasn't the predisposed notion that there's a security camera in every grocery store, then what's to stop me from exercising my liberty to steal a backpack's worth of food for myself? If the FBI thought it was an unconstitutional security measure to monitor people's messages, then how will it be possible to stop a neglected kid before he takes the liberty upon himself to get revenge on his classmates? For reasons such as these I believe that security is something that shouldn't be neglected, and the security measures we have in place in our country right now are, for the most part, beneficial.

Now how does that relate to the expansion of AI? Well, in a digital age everything seemingly now revolves around the internet. The way security is handled sometimes relies on AI to be able to monitor large sites, see social media or even the YouTube monetization process. In fact, the beginning of the YouTube "adpocalypse" back in 2017 was so detrimental to so many content creators because of the trigger-happy demonetization system that was put in place. AI would scan videos for anything that might go against the site's community guidelines, and was often inaccurate and overbearing with when it would consider something to be non-advertiser-friendly. As a result, a lot of people who depended on YouTube as their main career were unable to make the money they desperately needed. 

Therein lies one of the biggest potential problems with relying on AI in my opinion: its unreliability potentially leading to disastrous outcomes. With AI on social media already targeting and censoring certain topics based on viewers' past history, there becomes a greater concern over how that censorship may be robbing people of the truth they should be hearing about without them ever being the wiser. And unfortunately, as I've discussed in this post and in what the video we watched in class reaffirmed, AI is on the rise and is being trained to run humanity, and with what we've seen AI do in the past I can only hope that what's to come won't be too overbearing on our ability to feel in control of our lives.