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.