Post #11: Living in the Age of AI

     The use of artificial intelligence and robots has become increasingly popular within recent years. This fact is alarming for several reasons, the main ones being lack of privacy and job security. This PBS documentary was very informative and eye-opening towards just how involved the government is in personal affairs and how almost every aspect of life is being monitored. Artificial intelligence is certainly a force to be reckoned with because it has the power to take over everything.

    In terms of job security, artificial intelligence has been a driving factor in unemployment. Structural unemployment results from increased industrialization and technology use, replacing humans as the main source of labor. Many companies and employers nowadays work to solve the problem of efficiency, questioning how tasks can be completed with as few workers as possible. This is one of the leading factors for the rise in inequality in America, as automation takes jobs that would previously be carried out by people. Karl Marx outlines this struggle between capital and labor in many of his theories, showing a perpetual cycle of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. 

    Artificial intelligence also poses a threat to both personal and national security. When it comes to social media, we are simply pawns in a much larger game of surveillance capital. Our search histories, favorited websites, liked content, and more are all tracked and used by digital exhaust to predict user interest. Technological devices that are marketed as “helpful” and “smart” tools such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are actually used to gather data from each household. The data and information that is gathered are then used for micro-behavioral targeting efforts. The video also showed examples of how artificial intelligence can be dangerous on a political scale, such as in the ways it was used by China for political re-education. Surveillance is used to target people of the Uyghur culture and imprison them in camps, essentially committing genocide. Personally, I feel as if the cons of artificial intelligence outweigh the pros.

In conclusion, artificial intelligence tools threaten the system of democracy we have established. I’ve learned that it’s important to protect your data and ensure that your online presence is kept to a minimum to avoid surveillance. Artificial intelligence is definitely a scary innovation, but unfortunately, it is one that will only progress and grow stronger as time continues. I am interested to see what artificial intelligence will look like ten years down the road.