The Threat of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as human intelligence incorporated into machines. AI has done wonders for the civilized world as it has led to ground-breaking technological developments. For example, before the 21st century humans could not even imagine that cars would house a smart system that would enable real-time GPS tracking or another example is the omnipresent smart phone that comes loaded with every possible feature which earlier required separate devices such as — calculator, music system, alarm clock and others. It is due to AI that today we live very comfortable lives where everything is accessible at the tip of the fingers, be it shopping, setting a schedule, monitoring heart-rate and the like. Given the speed at which technology and AI are developing, we must pause for a second and think about where we are headed. The vital question we must ask is — how safe are we in this new era of artificial intelligence?
Social media began to take the world by storm in the 21st century with the rise of platforms like MSN messenger, Orkut, Yahoo, Myspace and so on. These platforms were simple hubs where people could add their friends, text each other and meet new people. However, real-time location tracking was not yet advanced as a result these platforms were relatively safer than those of today. With the further development of technology and AI, in September 2008 GPS was introduced into Android systems. With the help of GPS, an individual’s phone could automatically set the time, date, and location settings and this did not require manual work. Quite helpful indeed! It could also help you find your way back if you ever got lost. Things seem to be changing for the better but we must stop and analyze the drawbacks of such developments as it stands today.
The rise of more interactive social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and the advent of dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have all inadvertently contributed to the increasing threats to personal safety. For example, let us consider an individual who does not consume much of social media but is very much present on it. Let’s say that this person has an account on Facebook, mainly to communicate with family and friends. Sounds fine so far, doesn’t it? Ok! here is the catch — have you ever stopped and wondered why you receive “add as friend” recommendations. Who are these people that Facebook recommends you to add? Chances are that you may or may not know them but the chances are higher that somewhere in your life you may have sat next to them or you probably attended the same event as them or they maybe in your workplace or your college but you do not know them at all. Notice how the AI is working here. The AI on your phone knows your real-time location and this data is given out to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The other person’s Facebook profile has also definitely recommended that he/she add you as a friend. Isn’t the coincidence striking? Well this is not coincidence, this shows how much AI has developed today. The social media platforms are able to make use of the data that comes from your phone’s AI as a result the AI knows that you often visit a particular place or location and the same goes for the AI on the other person’s phone. This stranger frequents the same location as you as a result of which his/her Facebook profile has picked up such data and has accordingly recommended to add people from the vicinity. Is this not scary? Now for someone to know exactly who you are and what you do they just have to look at your profile on social media and if you are an open book on social media and prefer that your details remain public then I do not have to tell you that your safety is compromised. It is safer to lock your profile but doing so will not stop the AI from recommending you to strangers but you are still better off being a closed book than an open one. Dating apps also require that you share your precise location for obtaining matches from your vicinity but this compromises personal safety given the number of scammers and con-artists who are operating on these platforms in the disguise of others.
AI has definitely developed but we must be aware of such drawbacks. Our phones are smart but we must be smarter else we risk giving out too much personal details thus risking our safety. Did you know that even the pictures we click contain metadata? Metadata is basically data within data. For example, if you have given your phone camera the permission to access location data, then the pictures you click (data) will store the metadata that is the location and time. Now if your social account is public and you upload this picture and some stranger manages to download that image then you have doubly compromised yourself since that stranger now has access to not just your data (image) but also the metadata (location and time). Being unaware of such things can lead to overexposure due to which strangers get to know — your name, what you look like, where you are from, which places you frequent, where you study, what job you do and also your date of birth.
The ways to combat the drawbacks of AI is to not give out too much detail about yourself on social media and to have your account locked so that only those whom you add can view your profile details. Another thing to note is that you should never allow any app to access your location, not even the inbuilt camera app as this creates metadata in the pictures you click. Given how AI works today, it is certain that in the future governments will be dependent on IT billionaires for such technology as it will enable them to gain absolute insight into the lives of citizens thus enabling 24x7 all around monitoring. Mass oblivion coupled with AI breakthrough and increasing government control is going to lead to a new kind of totalitarian state in the years to come — a state which has 24x7 access to all your details, preferences, likes, dislikes as well as your movements and whereabouts. Today, we consider technology and AI to be the pillars of a successful country but we are also gradually approaching a dystopian world of dictators and to-be dictators waiting to take full control of the state, the economy and amongst other things your life.
Aldous Huxley predicted this dystopian future in his novel Brave New World (1932) and so did George Orwell in his popular novel 1984 published in 1949. The only difference is that in their time technology and AI was in its primitive form, but being master prophets they made various predictions which are turning out to be true today. No doubt technology has made our lives easier but we must be aware of the impending disasters that are around the bend. To know more I would suggest that you read these sci-fi novels because what these men wrote in the first half of the 20th century was called science fiction but today it is reality or shall I say a partial reality.
