Reflections — A People’s Guide to AI
4 words that come to mind when I think of AI:
Surveillance
Bias
Utopia / Dystopia
The Singularity
There is an impending sense of danger surrounding AI. Due to the tendency to view technology as inherently objective, my biggest concern is that all AI innovation will be left unchecked, sidestepping all ethics. Having grown up in a heavily surveilled environment, I have always had a somewhat hopeless outlook on things. This extended to my relationship with technology and for the longest time believing it was impossible to protect my privacy.
3 devices / digital services I use daily:
Laptop
iPhone
Chrome Browser
Something that surprised me a while ago was the predictive text on my phone. Most of the time I type in “Arabizi” or “Franco Arab” which is basically writing Arabic using english letters and numbers (to represent sounds not in the english language). Since I use it all the time, my phone has become crazy good at suggesting what to say next in Franco Arab with great accuracy even though to any computer the words represent literal nonsense.
Another thing was the ability to search the pictures on my phone by every person who’s face is in my photos app. It never occurred to me that there was facial recognition being carried out on each photo (in addition to geo trackers) and only led me to wonder how much information is really extracted from each picture.
Email Inbox → auto completing emails for you
Check Depositing → matching signatures
Texting and Mobile Keyboards → predictive text
Netflix → recommendation systems
Google → ranking results based on previous searches
Social Media → targeted advertisements
Automated Message Systems → support chatbots
What do we gain by having AI in our everyday life?
Ideally, more free time to explore / be creative. Doing things more efficiently saves us time and effort.
What do we lose by having AI in our everyday life?
Not having equal access to the benefits, thus further perpetuating the unjust society we live in. Over-reliance on technology. A loss of meaningful connections.
What problem are you trying to address?
AI can solve traffic inefficiencies by reducing waiting times and addressing congestion.
How can AI help solve this issue?
AI can help solve this issue by using real time data to redirect traffic when a road gets too congested. It can also predict traffic patterns, when roads get congested and why they do to be able to prevent it in the first place.
What role will human have in addressing the issue?
Designing the system and the algorithms. Providing the traffic data.
What data do you need to create an AI to help you address your issue?
24/7 traffic data and surveillance of streets to predict patterns.
How will you responsibly gather this data in a way that respects individual’s privacy?
Ensure that the data is anonymized / no data is being collected on individual cars or used to surveil people’s habit.
Diagram
