Oh, government, how confusing you are. And, oh, how scarily accurate predictions about technology can be. And, can’t forget, oh, what slippery a slop(e) Generative AI is.
As the AI world functions right now, it is extremely competitive and the ability to compete relies solely on money and power.
Kate Crawford addresses this system of power in her book, Atlas of AI. On page eight she explains, “due to the capital required to build AI at a scale and the ways of seeing that it optimizes AI systems are ultimately designed to serve existing dominant interests. In this sense, artificial intelligence is a registry of power.” Crawford highlights, one, the fact that capital is required to build AI, and two, those who have capital dominate the field, interjecting their own interests in technological development, but mostly their own interests in profit. Much like the history of content explained by Kate Eichhorn in her book, Content, profit often preys on knowledge and privacy in online spaces.
Eichhorn gives the example of Facebook; Facebook conducted their own research on facial recognition by sorting through millions of tagged photos from their unsuspecting users. Eichhorn gives this example on page 18, where she further explains how the content in itself has no value, rather the endless production of content gives companies value through their ability to profit off data as they please. But, the platform still has millions of users; meaning, Facebook has successfully tricked users into believing the benefit of the site is greater than the harm.
We see similar cycles already emerging in AI platforms where they keep users as engaged as possible; even to the point of emotional manipulation. Karen Hao’s, Empire of AI, explores these negative tactics often used by AI programs to keep users engaged. Much like other content sharing sites, the more content AI receives the more data it has to benefit its own goals, no matter the harm to the users. In her book, Hao comments on the fact that these tech corporations make promises to change the future and deliver large amounts of progress to the tech world, but often, the involvement of billionaires brings regression to these spaces.
This regression is often not obvious to the naked eye, though, because it happens in other spaces. Take literally right now, AI seems to keep moving up, even AI superbowl ads! The tech industry, to the naked eye, is growing in large amounts. And, by no doubts Generative AI is growing exponentially. At the same time, people are largely split on AI to the point it causes controversy in academic, online, political, and social spaces (and more). And while AI continues to grow… the rest of America… not so much.
“These two features of technology revolutions—their promise to deliver progress and their tendency instead to reverse it for people out of power, especially the most vulnerable—are perhaps truer than ever for the moment we now find ourselves in with artificial intelligence.” – Karen Hao, Empire of AI.
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