Blog Post #10 Assignment

 Write a regular post reflecting on the video — what you learned, what you thought were important take-aways, things that surprised you, things that frightened you. Questions to spark thinking:

What are positive aspects of more and more complex artificial intelligence and machine learning?

What about privacy, pros and cons?

What about national security?

What about online security and identity theft?

    As someone who uses computers every day, am a large fan of electronic music and video game music, have an interest in coding and animating, and am planning to pursue a major in game design, it is safe to say that my activities online can be easily tracked based on how much my hobbies and interests rely on technology, and eventually potentially AI (even though there are some things that AI cannot do, like create new, interesting ideas for games, since they're creating things based on what others have done prior).

    Despite all of this, there are still benefits to AI and machine learning, as well as its constant evolution. For one, it can help law enforcement through facial recognition. It also makes some jobs easier or not have to be done by humans, which is really helpful for dangerous jobs like high-risk medical procedures, mining, and more.

    While all of this is helpful, there is a field that I haven't talked about yet: Privacy. AI can be used to breach privacy and know nearly everything about people, from their interests to what they do on a daily basis. Companies like Google and Facebook use user preferences to better understand the user, and to give them ads that would better appeal to them. They use search terms and messages written by the user to determine this. This information is also given away to 3rd party companies and sites.

    This issue goes beyond just companies, unfortunately. Governments are also able to do this, both the U.S government and others around the world. Not only are they also able to see one's interests, but they're also able to track our every move with cameras, posts, and even our own phones, an object we take pretty much anywhere. Anything that a cybercriminal can hack into, the government can hack into as well, likely with more efficiency as well. Based on the video we have watched, China is the strongest government when it comes to surveillance. With the 600m+ cameras they have in their country, as well as the ones they are sending to dozens of other countries to help spy on their own citizens, they are going to be a powerhouse in this field.

    AI and technology has shown to be both good and evil- while they can be used for both, it all depends on what us humans tell it to do. We can modify it to make our lives better, or make our lives worse, and so much less private.