Blog #11- Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. In today's world, technology is continuing to advance and take over. When you think about what technologies and devices that were accessible to us as kids vs now, or even think back to when our parents were our age it puts into perspective how much the world has changed. Artificial intelligence is a fairly new advancement that is continuing to grow and will soon be our new normal. The documentary Age of AI explores the concept of artificial intelligence and how it is changing our lives currently, plus our lives in the future. 

When I think of artificial intelligence I think of that scary robot that came out a couple years ago. If I

remember right, her name was also Sophia. She looked like a real human and it was even rumored that she was given citizenship. That terrified me... Imagine a world where we are walking around with robots that look like us, are able to do the same things as us but can possess way more information than us.

After watching part of the Age of AI documentary in class I learned that it doesn't just consist of talking and walking robots. Things like facial recognition, self-driving cars, and amazon's Alexa are all a part of artificial intelligence. To me, that makes the concept less scary. Facial recognition has made my life easier. It's not a need, but when Apple added it to the iPhones I could pay faster, not have to remember/type in all my passwords, and open my phone easily. I personally think that self-driving cars are an amazing invention. My family has a Tesla and while the self-driving part isn't 100% ready yet, it is a cool concept and can probably save many lives. Amazon's Alexa was a cool invention to push forward "smart homes". We have a couple throughout our house that we used to use frequently when they first came out. Our family doesn't really use them anymore because they aren't really needed.

With any new technology, advancements comes the topic of privacy. The three AI devices I am familiar with are also an invasion of privacy. With facial recognition, it is scary to think these creators/ the government has access to all your information through scanning of your face. When talking about privacy and self-driving cars, in my experience the car takes all of your information and stores it to make things easier on you. If you really think about your privacy, it is kind of scary because it stores data of where you've been and where you want to go, including your home address. Lastly, to me, Alexa is the creepiest of all. I recently saw a Dr. Phil episode where hackers got into their home cameras and Alexa. They used it to talk to the family's little children. They knew all of their information and even when the parents leave for work and come back. Privacy is a tricky thing, but if you are open-minded with these inventions you have to understand the negatives.