In the Age of AI (Blog 11)

     In the age of new technology, artificial intelligence's presence and recent growth have made us aware of what our future could look like. The reality of automation taking over quite a few significant industries has become a reasonable possibility in the near future. We've seen the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence already in factories, our homes, and automobiles. However, these smaller inventions are only the beginning of what is to come with the artificial intelligence wave. 

    In the Frontline documentary, we same revolutionary advances in AI, such as the deep learning intelligence system beating the legendary 'Go' player 4-1, which became a nationwide spectacle. We also see China pushing technology into the next wave of inventions. One of the featured tech innovators also predicts that 50% of the jobs will be affected or severely affected by technology advances. As of right now, the Chinese are all-around more in touch with new technology as their society has embraced cashless payment, food delivery, self-driving cars, and need your cellphone for most basic tasks. They are building new cities that are AI friendly that are already replacing the traditional jobs we've always known. The country, in general, is also very open about its surveillance efforts. They are including surveillance in the design of these new cities to collect data on users to better mold deep intelligence to become more efficient and keep tabs on its citizens. As we see the intelligence become more competent, it worries what it could be used for. Tech company surveillance is worrisome because they collect our information, facial features, and fingerprints for their own usage. As we see AI become more intelligent and collect our information, we can predict that data breaches would be more lucrative and easier to conduct. This could also affect our national security and secrets. We could see a new form of warfare where we attack the infrastructure networks that run our society. Imagine automated trucks, planes, and trains getting hacked and being intentionally crashed.  This is a real risk that needs to be treaded through carefully. 

    Although there are several concerns about the ever-growing use of AI, there are some benefits to the technology. One company featured is promoting the use of self-driving trucks to help reduce traffic fatalities. They believe they can design code that is significantly safer than a human driver. The human factor has also been a major contributing cause in any form of accidents that could make transportation much safer. There is also a medical advantage to detect diseases and other illnesses based on previous data to better the fight. We don't yet know about advantages as they are being developed. The AI could read the data it collects to understand what we need to improve our lives. The AI algorithms could be the next inventors of our time, which could be very interesting what they determine we need. 

    Overall, I am more skeptical than not about artificial intelligence and am curious where it will go. The industry it's in is still growing rapidly every day, and the decisions they make are crucial towards its success and ours as a human race.