Blog Post 10 | In the Age of AI

The growth in technology and AI is intended to make life easier and more efficient however through the video In the Age of AI we learn that this can also come with unintended consequences. 

The video speaks about a few different forms of AI however one specific thing that was emphasized in the beginning of the second hour was how private companies are using AI to track data on you and all of your searches/interests. 

In the beginning, some people looked at this as a helpful and cool way to find searches that interest you, however as time moved forward and the AI became smarter, more and more specific searches would be given which would begin to creep out everyone.

I myself have felt like this firsthand when speaking about something I wanted to a friend and then seeing it pop up on my search engine or social media within the next minute. This is a scary thing to think about but can come with pros and cons depending on how you view it.

The pros can be that it makes searching for items easier along with allowing data that relates to you as a person. Whether this is shopping or just searching for research for a class you're taking the overall effect is supposed to make things easier.

The cons however clearly outweigh these pros. The biggest and most important thing to take away from AI is your privacy. With companies having so much information on you they now almost hold a power over your head that you can't undo. They know everything about what you like, what you're doing in your life, what your goals are, and even who you may care about. This takes away all privacy that you would have had and almost feels like it's violating our rights as humans. 

Along with this, if our nation as a whole gets hacked or breached. A specific person or country now has all the access they could ever want to the people of America. This puts the nation at a tremendous threat and could cause the downfall of an empire. Although this is unlikely, it's important to remember when discussing a topic of this sort.

The final point I want to make is the idea of a digital footprint. With everything being saved and accessible by powerful people. Your online activity can now come back to haunt you in the future. Whether it's for a job or just for a legal reason a simple search or picture can now hold you back from getting to where you want to go.

To summarize, the idea of AI making things easier and more efficient is a good one, however, the unintended consequences that could come along with this far outweigh the pros. Therefore it's important to remember that with the advancements we make in technology, we need to ensure that our rights as people are protected or private activities can come back to haunt us in the end.