Artificial Intelligence

"In The Age of AI"

"In the Age of AI" by Frontline is a video that focuses upon both the positives and negatives of AI use in our time. One of the covered topics that I found most interesting was AI and automation in working class, blue collar America. According economist Mike Hicks, offshoring accounts for only about 20% of job loss in America, whereas the increase of automation takes a much higher percentage of American jobs. Hicks also correlated the 15% drop in standard of living over the last decade with the increasing automation of jobs.

Automation is when robots take over a human's job, and the use of robotic labor has increased drastically, especially with advancing AI technology. I was surprised, and saddened, to learn that children of parents who have lost their jobs due to automation have higher rates of skipping class, dropping out of school, lower literacy rates, and mental health issues. This highlights the idea that AI is not only taking opportunities away from working class America, but their children as well.

In the video, robots were not only completing factory assembly line jobs, but even packing online grocery orders with the ability to recognize and learn patterns. The video showed both sides to this nation-wide dilemma. The "higher-ups" in large companies will say that automation actually increases job opportunities for Americans because higher production rates create more need for jobs like transportation of product. Those who work and oversee factory production wholeheartedly disagree with this sentiment, and say that the rate of robots replacing jobs is much higher than increased production creating more jobs. 

Previous Harvard professor and author Shoshana Zuboff speaks in the video about the shift in consumerism paired with technology, and the evolution of Google. The popular internet browser began with two Stanford alumni, who both vowed that "advertising would distort the internet." However, when the founders received pressure from investors to build a higher profit, the company turned towards user's data to create personalized ads. These advertisements were based upon Google user's searches, clicks, shares, etc., and therefore created the perfect algorithm to advertise what the consumer needed and wanted most. 

We see this in almost every bit of the internet today. I can trace almost every advertisement I see on social media back to a like, share or search that I have made to create a formula for those specific products. It is both frustrating and alluring because I know that everything I do on the internet leaves a digital footprint for companies like Google to make more money. This strategy completely diminishes any area of privacy offered from internet and online use. 

Molly Kinder, a previous Georgetown University professor who taught a course on AI, says in "In the Age of AI" that "women disproportionately hold the jobs that are at highest risk of automation." She goes on to explain that when we think of AI replacing jobs, the first image that comes to mind is men working on factory assembly lines. In reality, AI has replaced more clerical positions such as cashiers, HR departments, fast food workers, etc., which are held by more women than men. It is frightening to me that AI has reach into many different sections of the workforce, not just factory-based jobs. 

Alistair Mactaggart wanted to put the power that online companies had over personal information back into the hands of their users' through a California ballot initiative that was combatted by Comcast, Google, Facebook and AT&T (shall I mention that AT&T and Comcast own the majority of today's mainstream media). The privacy law was unanimously voted in by the California Senate. It includes both the "right to know" and the "right to say no," meaning that consumers are able to ask companies to reveal what data has been collected on them, and tell the company to not sell the consumer's information. Since this law, 15 other states have adopted their own data privacy laws. This number negatively surprised me, as I would have thought that almost all of the 50 states should have something in place for consumer data protection.

EOTO: Mainstream Media

The Power of Few

The umbrella topic of Mainstream Media (MS) deserves both marvel and incredulousness. Today, we see mainstream media everywhere. It is the giant corporations that own news channels such as CNN, Fox News, and NBC, other news outlets, as well as entertainment companies and print media. The three powerhouses of today's media are Disney, Comcast, and Paramount Global. Each of these monster conglomerations are worth billions upon billions of dollars. 

Apple: $2.74T

Comcast: $213.79B

Disney: $204.71B

Paramount Global: $23.49B

Fox: $21.06B

Research into the tangled web of MSM will uncover the idea that the companies listed above, and other top media companies own almost every other broadcasting, newscasting, advertising and entertainment company. These consolidations and buyouts have fed the media giants until they have teeth sunk directly into the country's, and world's, media. Apple, its net worth reaching the trillions over the past couple years, bought out Beats and Beats by Dre, as well as owning Apple TV, Apple Books, Apple Music, and the list goes on. Disney has acquired Hulu, ESPN, Disney+, ABC, 20th Century Fox, etc. Comcast own all of NBC as well as Sky, which is strange considering Comcast is a cable company. AT&T followed the same path, and now owns Warner Bros., CNN, HBO, and Cartoon Network. Fox News Media is owned by Fox Corporation, and one of the only popular news channels that is not owned by a different monopolizing company. 

How did we get here?

The timeline of Mainstream Media begins in the 15th century with Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. The press allowed quicker and wider distribution of print media, acting as the gateway to newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, etc. The newspaper originated in the 19th century, with The Times as the first mass-produced and published paper. The Industrial Revolution, hand-in-hand with media, allowed America to revolutionize the way that they distribute news. The early 20th century radio came next, and with it, the first opportunity to spread forms of media that are not printed. The radio provided both information and entertainment for a larger audience. According to the University of Minnesota's "The Evolution of Media," the invention of the radio also brought an increase in America's consumeristic qualities, in ways of fashion, music, products, materials, etc. Media was just one of the many trends becoming "mainstream." 

The first television sets were sold to the public in the late 1930s. After World War II, television's audience skyrocketed, and by the mid 50s, "two-thirds of American households owned at least one [TV] set." This new form of media communication combined both print and the radio to encompass both news and entertainment for the country. TV was originally solely broadcasting and ran by three major channels: NBC, CBS, and ABC. These three networks controlled more than 90% of television airtime. TV consisted of news broadcasts, daytime talk shows, movies and programs. It was not until the rise of cable TV in the 1980s that television became a huge umbrella for many versions of media. Now, America could choose from a large variety of channels to fit their media needs. News, sports, movies, shows, documentaries, nature, music, pop culture, and more categories now fell under television. 

Although television has become a modern gateway for companies to swallow others, and create monopolies over mainstream media, the government has *attempted* to enforce regulations. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into place by President Clinton with the goal of decreasing conglomerate hold over television, by increasing competition between networks and channels. The act opened the telecommunications market by making it much easier for new companies to enter the market and compete with incumbent companies. In an attempt to regulate, this act deregulated stipulations on servicing and pricing for telecommunication companies, making it easier to stay afloat within the market. Interestingly enough, part of the act was ruled as a violation of 1st Amendment rights by the SC as it was trying to ban indecency and obscenities from media. Unfortunately, the Telecommunications Act (1996) actually worked opposite of its goal, and allowed the television industry to fall into the hands of a small number of major companies, again. Part of the Act was focused on decreasing the power of overarching media corporations, but by eliminating regulation of these companies, the government made it easier for channels like ABC and CBS to take over.

Echo Chambers

Mainstream media today creates a phenomenon called an echo chamber. This effect occurs when a person only consumes media and information that aligns with their own personal values, beliefs, and biases. It can be compared to party-line voting, which is when a person solely votes for Democrats or Republicans, not caring about the candidate themselves. Mainstream media in the modern worlds has turned extremely political, especially when watching news channels like Fox News and CNN. Because there is so much variety and options in media, people are able to pick and choose specifically what they want to consume within their echo chamber, and block out anything else. 

Mainstream media's takeover on American culture as also led to a steady decrease of media trust within the population. Companies that have little to nothing to do with public media completely run it, like wireless cell provider AT&T. Why are these companies controlling what I see and don't see on the 5 o'clock news? And why has $$ now become a huge influence over anything media-based? These topics are why Americans' trust in mass media has experienced a steady decline over the past decades (according to Pew Research Center). The chart below shows that the number of people who have little to no trust in America's mass media has increased from 1973 to 2023, and the amount of people who have a "great deal/fair amount" of trust has taken a steady decline. 

Privacy In The Digital Age

The constant debate between technology and privacy is both an exciting, and dangerous one. Life today
does not exist without technology, and this melding of two realities has significantly decreased the human right to privacy. To exist within the digital age, we must create a digital footprint. This entails creating accounts, posting, following, pictures, videos, etc. My digital footprint is made mostly of social media posts and academic/professional commitments. However, if you search my name up on the internet, you will find numerous random things from my life over the years. 

A Denver post article from my kindergarten year when my elementary school started archery courses in P.E, when I won a poetry contest for Beaver Creek, CO, the medical device I wore to fix a chest deformity at 10, my LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram posts, quotes from High Point's page, etc. From a quick Google search, I can find my full name, where I live, every school I have attended, the full names of my immediate family, and more. The amount of information that is free to any person with access to the internet is relatively terrifying. 

 Juan Enriquez's TEDTalk, titled "Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo," focuses on the permanency of our online presence. He comparison of digital footprint to an ink tattoo illustrates just how revealing the internet can be. He highlights the ultimate visibility that online presence provides. Enriquez mentions the website face.com, which "had about 18 billion faces" in the portal, and was recently sold to Facebook. 

Face recognition technology is just one of the factors of the internet that causes the phrase "your phone is listening to you," because so much of what we see in advertisements and suggested content stems from our face and our online history. I have been seeing more and more ads for products and shopping websites that I was merely discussing with a friend, not entering into a Google search bar. I especially see suggested, AI generated content from the TikTok algorithm that my phone would have "heard" me talking about, or noted that I was searching something online. If I play my workout playlist on Spotify, my TikTok "for you" page will be full of videos depicting workout routines and programs.

Catherine Crump's TEDTalk highlights another violation of privacy, this time in the hands of the US government. Automatic License Plate Readers are a device that track plates that pass the scanner and organizes the information into an accessible list, so that officers can cross-reference during an investigation to find a certain vehicle's path. However, Crump points out that recently, law enforcement has been using the readers to compile "mass quantities of data" containing every car's plate. The government has databases consisting of millions of dates, times and photos depicting cars that pass these Automatic License Plate Readers. This is unnerving because as we, Americans, go about our daily lives, we are ultimately being tracked by the government. Technology like this is the reason that the idea of personal privacy is becoming obsolete. 

After watching these videos, I feel frustrated in technology and our necessity of online presence. Almost everything I do for school is online. I have applied for every job and internship in my life online, and most have had either an online application or video interview before going in person. I communicate to my friends and family on my phone and through social media. Not having any sort of online presence in this day and age is equivalent to being a nomad or monk. As Generation Z, it is impossible to not have some kind of account, whether it's social media, LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. It is ironic that what is necessary to have a life and succeed is also what is such a danger to us. Activity online is like living in a house without curtains or blinds; the complete lack of privacy from both online conglomerations and the government is not safe, and not regulated effectively. The TikTok ban is one of the first things the US government has done to try and eliminate the detriment of social media, but even this has been met with immense controversy, and may not even be the right step in the direction to protecting privacy. It is unfortunate that "going off the grid" is not more normalized.