In the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence has been a rapidly growing field in recent years, with advancements in technology and increased investment driving its emergence as a significant force in modern society. The Frontline PBS documentary “In the Age of AI” was interesting to watch because it was an insightful exploration of the impact that artificial intelligence has on society and how it will affect us moving forward into the future. Even outside this documentary, just over this past year, I’ve seen artificial intelligence slowly begin to creep into everyday life. A couple weeks ago I heard a song on TikTok, “Heart On My Sleeve”, that sounded like a new song by the famous music artist, Drake. However, I couldn’t find the song anywhere. I soon found out that it was actually created by a ghostwriter using an AI-generated tool that analyzed Drake’s voice and created a new melody with lyrics based on his music style. Finding this out absolutely shocked me and made me think about what else is to come. Although this song was created to be harmless, this highlights the potential for what the future holds with artificial intelligence reshaping our lives and this is only the beginning.

Moving on to the documentary, I found the section on surveillance capitalism and the rise of data mining to be very interesting but was shocked by how intrusive these search engine companies became. After the “dotcom” crash in the early 2000s, the creators of the newly developed search engine, Google, began scrambling to find a way to keep their company from danger. At the same time, a new discovery emerged that whenever users search or browse on the search engine, they leave behind digital traces of their behavior. Companies began to realize how valuable this information could be by applying machine learning algorithms to predict user interests. Google began systematically collecting this data which would come up with predictions of what a user is doing and clicking on when they are using the internet. Between the years 2000 and 2004, Google’s stock went up by 3,590%. They were making money, and a lot of it. However, the company decided to keep users in the dark about how they were collecting and selling all of this personal information and data. This new business model shifted to other companies as well, such as Facebook. These companies provide a free service and in exchange, collect all the data of the people who are users. 

During the 2010 midterm elections, Facebook decided to conduct an experiment with artificial intelligence’s powers to see if they could influence behavior in the real world. They created an “I voted” button where only a subset of users could interact with it and their picture would show up under the icon if they clicked on it. Their goal was to see if they could get more people to vote and by the end of the elections, they claimed to have gotten 340,000 people to vote.

Now we have new technological gadgets such as Google Home or Alexa in our homes which are constantly listening and observing everything that's going on. In reality, these new toys are taking this immense amount of information and building better artificial intelligence capabilities. It’s honestly terrifying. These are the same methodologies that fuel surveillance capitalism. 

One of the most significant consequences of surveillance capitalism and data mining is the erosion of our privacy. As companies collect more and more of our personal data, we are losing control over our own information while our digital dossiers continue to expand. This can lead to a range of privacy violations, including the exposure of sensitive personal information and even the risk of identity theft. It can also have a chilling effect on free speech, as individuals may self-censor out of fear that their personal data will be used against them. In addition, the concentration of personal data in the hands of these few large tech companies is alarming and can eventually create a situation where these companies hold immense power and influence over individuals and society.