AI's Impact (Blog Post #10)

AI's Impact

AI has drastically shaped the technological field in the past few decades. In this 2019 FRONTLINE PBS documentary, AI's sweeping changes and impacts were highlighted. Now in 2023, the influence of AI has increased to an even higher level. 

In a 2023 Forbes Insider article statistics about the current standing of AI and future predictions were published. This article highlighted the drastic influence of AI technology and specifically touched on the new Chat GPT program released in this past year. The Forbes Insider magazine reported that in the first five days of its release, Chat GPT had over one million users. We see the ever-continuing impact of these AI technologies here. 

Through the FRONTLINE PBS documentary, there was some disturbing information about AI discussed. Through this blog post, I am going to break the facts discussed into three categories: personal privacy/online security, national security, and data litigations. 

Personal Privacy:

Personal privacy is a major concern surrounding AI technology. The idea of "surveillance capitalism" was mentioned in the documentary. Surveillance capitalism is the profit off of observed private human communication. In the documentary, this is followed up by a statement from a Google employee to his friend saying, "You'd be horrified by how much we know about you" and further explaining that these tech companies' business is learning as much about a person as possible.

Companies collect digital traces of behavior referred to as "digital exhaust" to form a comprehensive profile of all users. An example of this is the explosion of Google when they first started collecting and distributing user data for ad purposes. They began this in 2000, and by 2004 their revenue increased by 3,590%. Companies learned that they could make an immense amount of profit by collecting and circulating user data. 

Companies began offering free platforms in exchange for the data collected from their users. This poses a major privacy concern for anyone who uses any internet platform. As technology advanced smart speakers were introduced into the homes of consumers. The privacy concern surrounding AI grew with the integration of these devices in people's homes. Because the devices were created to respond to voice activation, users and critics were concerned that these devices were always listening. Turns out, they are. Smart speakers track small data to make inferences about users. AI devices jeopardize the personal privacy of users and allow companies to collect more data about these people. 

National Security:

In 2017 China claimed that they would catch up to the U.S. in terms of AI by 2025 and lead the world by 2030. This poses many threats to the U.S. and other nations. AI has three major impacts on national security including military superiority, information superiority, as well as economic superiority. So, the idea of a country like China leading the world in AI poses a threat. 

The FRONTLINE PBS documentary compared China to Saudia Arabia and data to oil when talking about the global impact of AI. The more data owned by a country, the better their AI will function. This article by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, discusses military advancements with the use of AI. According to the article military advancements include automatic machinery like ships, helicopters and drones, predictability software, and individual surveillance systems which include programs like facial recognition. 

Since the new social media platform "TikTok" has soared in popularity, recent data scandals have taken place. TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media company was exposed in the media for harvesting American User's data and selling it. This gives China access to over 180 Million American user's information. More information can be found in this news article. 

Data Litigations:

For American online companies a privacy law was passed that required all websites to have a button for users to either accept data tracking or decline it. This gave users the right to know if their data is being stored, the right to say no to their data being cached, and a third-party opt-out.