The Rise Of AI Begs Serious Questions

How An Exploding AI Industry Is Raising Mounting Concerns Over Privacy And Censorship

The recent proliferation of cutting-edge technology is boggling the minds of nerds the world over, albeit the subsequent repercussions of their implementation should raise substantive privacy questions in an era where we already see examples of intrusion in those areas.

Advancements in the field of artificial intelligence have taken a series of leaps and bounds this year. From software development to data management, what we are seeing present itself as the new wave of technological development may prove rather to be the new wave of 4th Amendment infractions, and data harvesting and misuse. This will inevitably be the harbinger of increased overreach and abuse of power by the NSA.

The Tech Explosion

In the last couple of years we have seen drone technology reach its potential and become commonplace on grocery store shelves. We have witnessed a technological revolution in personal assistant technology, from vacuum cleaners that navigate the house on its own, refrigerators that write your shopping list for you, in-home tech command centers such as the Google assistant capable of controlling lights, music, alarm systems, booking appointments, etc...

What the dialogue surrounding this tech explosion seems to lack is the acknowledgement that the same Big Data giants that are currently under scrutiny for censorship and privacy breeches are being handed more access to more sensitive information. Think of the tech titan that Google has become, and the price we have already paid in making a system designed by the CIA and NSA an integral part of our daily lives. Now imagine the "Google Assistant" and fathom, if you will, the blissful ignorance of the apathetic consumer, who's consent to be closely monitored was manufactured by an advertisement who told him he would never have to get up to turn the light on again.

The Association Of Foxes For The Advancement Of Chicken Security

Incidentally, the most intrusive and hypothetically dangerous technology is coming from the largest and most financially endowed corporations, exponentially increasing the motivation on the part of these institutions to use their technological ability to harvest information from consumers for the government (such as Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, who has a $600,000,000 arrangement with the CIA). Furthermore, AI is now doing much more than harvesting data, it is beginning to control the information that we take in, as well. If you "google" keywords in order to locate certain news/information described by them, A Google-owned robot may decide to favor certain news sources over others (such as The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, who has a $600,000,000 arrangement with the CIA). Are these the types of individuals/companies we want manufacturing a device designed to listen to our homes? Of course this only strengthens an already existing home-intrusion on the part of the CIA, who has already been using everyday home appliances for surveillance. Likewise on the part of the private corporations, who have already admitted to using applications on our phones with access to the microphone to the same end. I have already reported on "The Inflating Technological Oligarchy". Now these same Big Data companies that forcefully dominate the playing field will have yet more information at their disposal, as we become yet more reliant on the conveniences they boast.