The Age of AI

 AI has taken the world by storm. From factories, to schools, AI has taken over. Whether its taking someone's office job, or writing a student's essay, AI has removed the need for people in many situations. When money becomes the root of all problems, the fewer people we will see in the workplace, technology increases efficiency, but what can it decrease?

The video In The Age Of AI, it expresses many ways that AI has been taking over our lives just one decision at a time. Shoshana Zuboff of Harvard Business School stated, "We thought that we were searching Google. We had no idea that Google was searching us." This philosophy is scary. If you think about it, every Google search we make, Google learns more about us, whether we search medical symptoms, locations of the nearest restaurant, or even who your friends and family are. 

Surveillance is everywhere. It is terrifying. Businesses make it their goal to know who you are, inside and out. Zuboff said, ..."whenever we search or whenever we browse, we're leaving behind digital traces of our behavior..." This makes me think about the number of Google searches that I have made that could let someone know so much about me. I've looked up medications, symptoms of medical conditions, and even my doctors. This is all now stored information that I would never tell a stranger, but the internet now knows. That's horrifying.

Now I am guilty of clicking on the ads that Google provides for me. I love them, they are incredibly accurate, which is terrifying, but convenient. The fact that I don't need to say or do anything, and the internet just puts the new pair of shoes I've been wanting right in front of me, sounds great! But once you think about it, how did they know I've been wanting those shoes? According to Zuboff, "What happened was they decided to turn to those data logs in a systematic way and begin to use these surplus data as a way to come up with fine-grained predictions of what a user would click on. And inside Google they started seeing these revenues pile up at a startling rate."

Overall, the concept of AI might seem cool at first. Heck, when they put a robotic bar on a cruise ship I was fascinated, and I can't even drink! It seemed super cool that this robot acted like a bartender and would make drinks faster than any human could. But they are taking our jobs, stealing our information, and making the world a terrifying place. What is the need for this data collection? Why should they take our jobs? Why AI?