In The Age of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence 

Just by readings this headline, some people got anxious. If not that, than what about angry or were you a member of the party who is crippled with terror as AI has silently crept its way into our lives? Could you possibly be among the minority, belonging to the group optimistic AI believers. Isn't it funny how two words can evoke such a variety of emotions in such a vast array of people? 

Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, understood under a technological definition, is a set of tools designed to help people achieve an objective function; where the objective function can simply be companies making more money. These companies are in the business of collecting as much data as possible on users such as buying behavior, gender, sexuality, deepest secrets, any text you've sent, and every single action you've made online. It's scary to think, but AI often knows more about us than do about ourselves and especially it. Specifically, AI is what gives the ability of a computer, robot, or tech device to operate 'autonomously' from little to no human control. The tasks are programmed as an algorithm the computer or robot uses to complete tasks from a menial level to replacing the need for people to do work. Examples of AI one might find in the world extends from something as small as the Alexa to extending over any job looking for efficiency. As of now, AI is not able to think for itself or become aware. It requires human intelligence to create, program, and maintain operation to learn how to access situations and preform. However, all of that could change in the years to come. 

Personal Reaction to The Age of AI film

After viewing the PBS television documentary by Frontline, The Age of AI, I'm stuck in this toggle between acceptance and anarchy. On one hand, I could be hopeful that America and China will work together to use AI for good. Perhaps my life will be enhanced by AI so I can focus my attention on personal desires and things that bring me fulness to life rather than completing routine work I do not want to do. Maybe the AI industry will see how it could be better with strict privacy and safety regulations and trade transparency for the peoples trust. The cynic in me thinks all of this is sounds like one big load of gibberish (the only word I could come up with sub from sh*t). What if the other hand slaps everyone in the face for not putting a stop to AI sooner? What if all of the data companies have on me gets leaked or is available to the public for bidding like some type of storage war? A deeper question that the film brought to surface for me was, how do I feel about my privacy? Furthermore, what am I willing to sacrifice to keep it?  Truthfully, before this video, I had some background knowledge on AI. I mean how can you be a member of Generation X and not know about AI-it's everywhere. Still, I walked away from that film with takeaways that will influence how I live my digital life. For instance, when texting a friend I could stop the overdone use of explicit language or maybe cool it with the hyperboles since out of context, they could be incriminating! Also, I'll keep in mind that the information suggested to me-more like forced down my throat with all of these ads-is only reinforcing my bias or is changing my values to align with the company using the AI to collect data about me. With that said, I've learned that AI has the potential to improve humanity, will definitely destroy life as we know it because we don't know where it's going, and could easily adapt to being used for evil (aka war). 

The Global Superpowers of AI 

China-The Surveillance State

As oil is to Saudi Arabia, AI is to China; a grosely valuable resource that consumes the country and allows those with the deepest pockets and greatest power to control it all. An analogy that comes as no surprise for China, right? China uses AI in a drastically different way than the way Americans do. In China, it's about asserting power, controlling the public, and making the governments values everyone else's values too. Their use of AI is to amplify the the government's totalitarian control. With China's AI prefaced, let's transition to one of Americans' favorite topics-what the hell is China doing? To be blunt, they're about to beat us out in the progression of AI. In just a few years, China has become the second world super power of AI as it's on the way to being a state of total security. The Surveillance State is one of zero privacy for its people as AI is used to scan the country for signs of unrest. By scan I mean they literally use software to scan peoples faces to identify, track, and learn about them. What qualifies as unrest you might ask? To the Chinese government, unrest is anything that disrupts their agenda, image, or discredits their government in any way whatsoever through sharing secret information or acting out against them. known as the surveillance state. According to the film, in 2019 China deployed over six million cameras to achieve two goals: (1) enforce safety and (2) act as intimidation for the government (they're always watching). The Chinese government spending suggests to its people their use of AI is the future and there's no being, country, or act that could stop it. The Surveillance State has gone as far as using AI to detect which people are in need of political re-education and who is likely to commit treason or terrorism. 

Remember what I mentioned early about China using AI to enhance Xi Jinping's totalitarian control? Well, he's exported it to other regimes giving the Chinese government an idiotic amount of control and power leaving some to believe the Panopticon is here. The Belt and Road initiative only further extends their control but puts it outside of China's borders. It works like this; China gives business to countries in need or provides them with a resource they'd be grateful to have. They then offer to sell their AI tech (at a deducted price) and install them. Countries like Cambodia and Ecuador who saw China as a god send, soon became aware of its agenda-to watch over the entire world, collecting data as political leverage. This "Bamboo Curtain" directs countries selective attention to the positives of AI like innovation, wealth, and safety but it turn poses this rule of "IN-tentional"  blindness. Meaning, if you see something-don't worry about saying it, because we already know. 

What's America doing with AI?

Now that I've addressed the competition, let's talk about what's happening with AI on the homefront. It's almost like hating China has become part of Americans ways to prove you're a patriot and embrace nationalism. I think if you're only focusing attention on the wrongdoings or your competition, you're lying to yourself. Although not as blunt and forceful as China, America's AI is absolutely more grimey as it operates under the table, profiting from manipulation and deceit.

 "Surveillance capitalism claims private human experience as a free source of raw material            that's fabricated into predictions of human behavior to be sold to the highest bidder."

                                                        -Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard Business School Professor and                                                                      definitive Author of In the Age of the Smart Machine, 1988

Automation is the substitution of capital for labor. First on the docket, jobs. Will AI replace American jobs? Yes. AI tech companies phrase its impact as requiring the allocation of people from one sector (where the AI will come to take their job) to simply transitioning to another. Those people report they don't want AI to come in because losing a job means widespread job loss; no matter if they get moved from one sector to another, the robot is doing the work of many. These workers feel the tech companies promoting the use of their creation are lying and only want to speed up productivity to compete with China's automation and growth. Not everyone can be given a job when economic and operational efficiency is the goal. Donald Trump ran his campaign on the platform "Make America Great Again." One of the steps to do so was Trump bringing jobs back to the American people on America's soil.  Employment trends in middle America show automation has increased standard job loss by 15%-proving to be one heck of a silent killer (and I mean that literally). Sadly, studies show people are at higher risk for dying two decades after job loss (due to circumstances out of their control like outsourcing and automation) and children of those people have statistically lower educational attainment over their entire lifetimes. Many fear the future of AI, not its damage caused in the past. AI doesn't just affect the lower class, no-all jobs are vulnerable. Those in the finance sector, I'm talking to the people on Wall Street, day traders, investors, hedge fund managers, etc.-you're not safe. The inequality of opportunity is increasing as America loses its title, The Land of Opportunity. My country's appeal I'm afraid has gotten lost as the rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer; only this time the rich are comprised of the group of people who have their hands on AI technology (those who were already rich to afford it or those who created it) and the poor is comprised of the mass, also known as every other American operating outside of the AI cult. Will fear to get left in the past and the loss of America's nationalistic values held so dear and true to Americans, be the defining point in history where the country collectively stop caring about the right to privacy to stay ahead? We'll see. 

Techno Racism in AI

Another con of AI that has further divided the American people is racial bias encoded into the algorithm of AI. A mistake and unpredicted downside to AI as its creators put it, was discovered by Joy Buolamwin, known for her work uncovering the coded gaze and support for young women in STEM. Her cryptic words, "AI, Ain't I a Woman?" made the coding and social justice communities turn their attention to racial bias possessed by these machines. It happens like this-the coder of the AI posses unconscious biases (as well all do) and during the coding process, their biases seep through. This discounts what colors, shapes, features, and points of entry the code will pick up. Thus, some AI systems can pick up on fairer skin tones with similar features than darker complections with wider features because the autonomic bones of AI include errors in bed with bias. Racial Bias in AI has become a major issue in America as it encroaches upon minority populations cultural doctrine of equality.  Another con of AI that has further divided the American people. 

Privacy

Google, who gained an insane secret profit in 2000, went public in '04 of their revenue increase at 3,090% by selling users digital exhaust.  Digital exhaust is when a user leaves traces of their behavior online in data logs. It's used as a way to come up with fine grained predictions of what kind of ad a user would click on. Google was first to do so which led to their competitor, Facebook, jump in to casting their net out for data. When you search Google, it searches you too. 

The Cambridge Analytica case exposed Facebook for selling users personal data to third party sources. In this case we see how once our information is out there, it's up for grabs to anyone willing to pay the price. Even information we didn't know they had with our subtle scrolls, clicks, likes and much more-was also up for sale. Facebook claimed they can use cues in the online environment to change real world behavior-and in a way that bypasses the users awareness. How scary! This makes me think how recent elections have been impacted by those with this data and how they've used it to influence the results in their favor or for what they feel is right for the people (sounds like a God complex if you ask me). Afterall, behavioral prediction is about taking the uncertainty out of life thus making the human experience obsolete. 

The War of AI

As of now, America and China are split into two with where they're at in AI development, production, use, and response. The fear is soon, if not already, third world parties can choose who they want to go with for AI-creating one global power or worse, two who have to constantly contradict the other. 

America sees AI as this service in mankind. It makes the world adapt to you so you don't have to adapt to it. It does the jobs you don't want, but it also does the jobs thousands depend on for income and to support their way of life. It's supposed to have your safety and best interest at mind, but the companies who make it and own the data may not. China possesses the ability to monitor its people, those who have bought their AI products, and anywhere where their AI can reach. 

Hope for the people in the future of AI

Where there is change, there is hope. In 2018 a big step to change in privacy was passed- The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This gives California residents "the right to know." Meaning, they can go to any tech company and ask what they've collected on them in the past twelve months including the right to say no to third party sources. This gives residents an opt out which alerts companies to not sell their information and to tell all other sites one visits thereafter. 

There's also hope for the two AI superpowers to join forces and collectively use it for good. AI at its best could be liberating for humans to allow us to do what we love-taking back our human experience. I'll leave you with this, Is temptation to use AI past its moral limits too great? I'll let you decide.