IF there was a leading technology that defined us, it would be that we are all more connected through social media.
We communicate and read about what’s happening all around us through Facebook, share videos through YouTube, and chat almost every waking hour, and check our smartphones for updates almost several times an hour. Many estimate that we are spending more time in our mobile phones more than we watch TV and, for some, even more than they sleep already.
On one hand, there is all this furor about fake news, and privacy issues on Facebook. Facebook’s CEO, mark Zuckerberg was grilled by US Congress and the press several times for these, creating lots of buzz. So many tech companies now promise to mobilize all its technology and new agencies and people to address this issue. Facebook said that the spread of misinformation and divisive content, like influencing elections or public opinions, or fake news, will be its top priority.
I think we had this problem way back when email was still in its early stages. Email was originally conceived to communicate, and before long, it became a tool for spamming and spreading of propaganda, advertisement and misinformation.
Now, we have almost controlled spam. Machine learning and artificial intelligence software can detect fraudulent patterns and eliminate them. The same software detects spammers, and if you are branded so, will automatically just throw your email into the spam folder, or delete them. Almost the same technology can be used to detect fake news, and it is not far off to easily connect that one person can be holding different accounts, and these accounts are mainly spreading false news, and therefore may be shut down. False news can be tagged properly so that it will be hidden even before it can reach other people’s timelines.
On the other hand, YouTube reported that in the last three months of 2017, it deleted 8.3 million videos. Many of these videos are tagged automatically if it is found to be extremely violent, or is porn, or violated copyrights. More than 80 percent of the videos were identified by machines rather than humans or reports from users.
In fact, YouTube reported that 76 percent of the videos were removed even before being viewed by a single person.
Meanwhile, China is using technology in a totally different fashion.
It is using artificial technology and facial recognition to monitor its citizens and to give them a social credit score. These social credit scores can be given based for instance, on whether you constantly speak against the government, you jay walk, or spread false news. Then the score can be used to evaluate whether the person is allowed to buy a ticket, rent a house, get high speed internet or even get a loan. It seems the spectre of big brother being able to know everything that you do, or everywhere you go is here.
Is technology good or bad? Hard to say. It solves problems, but it also creates problems.