Bye, Alexa!

    

    We live in the age of artificial intelligence, in the age of technology and automation. We live in a world where we can make friends from all over the world and see what they are doing with the opening of an app or liking of a post. We live in a world where you no longer need someone to help you order your food, but rather you can go up to a screen and order it yourself. We live in a world where the knowledge of the ages is at the tip of our fingers. We live in an age where you can pay for goods with the tap of a plastic card or phone.
 
    While there are countless blessings that come with this technology and automation, there are of course curses that come with living in the age of AI. Nothing is private anymore. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you generate a cloud of data. This data is tracking where you are, what you are purchasing, how long you’re there and who you’re with. All of the clouds of data formed wherever you go are gathered to form intimate detailed understanding of your personality. The data can predict your thoughts, desires, dreams; it knows your friends, families, and co-workers. It can predict your next behavior and beyond. A powerful quote from the video touched on this: “What surveillance capitalism claims is private human experience is claimed as a free source of raw material fabricated into predictions of human behavior.”
 
    Companies that offer “free” products like Google and Facebook are actually in the business of mining the data of your life. These companies may start with the good intentions of using your data to personalize the world to you, to adapt the world to you. However, in this age of AI, things have taken a turn for the worse as instead of using social media, social media is using us. Instead of searching Google, Google is searching us. It’s crazy to me because they do all of this with our permission. A leader at Google quoted: “We know where you are, where you’ve been, and more or less can predict what you’re thinking, all with your permission.” These companies have capitalized on a trust that we had built with technology. We trusted based on history that technology would always make life better and easier. 
 
    Overall, my research has definitely frightened me and creeped me out. I don’t like the idea of being watched like we’re all in a Big Brother simulation or something. However, it also encouraged me to take extra precautions and to be careful every time I hit “I accept” or “I agree” and I am thankful for that! And after watching I certainly will never ever buy an Alexa.