Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6

How silicon valley is erasing your individuality

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 10.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | Google and other major tech companies are trying to increase their monopoly and reach every area of our lives. It seems that those companies can now do anything; they are all competing to become the best personal assistants. Thanks to artificial intelligence softwares, they want to be constantly by our sides and never leave us. Major tech companies believe we are all "social" beings. Therefore, they try to create "social" platforms where we can all collaborate. They think that by bringing us together, they will make a better world. When it comes to individuality and free will, tech companies know what they're doing. They have algorithms that tell us/suggest what to buy, what to read, or what to do. The dominance and monopoly of big tech companies can be dangerous; it can lead to conformism and privacy issues.
Image Description | N/A

Let's not let artificial intelligence become another bubble

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 15.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | At the World Economic Forum in Davos, everyone will be talking about artifical intelligence (AI). There have been major progress in the field thanks to natural language processing and machine learning. Future products will be using AI to improve our lifestyle; for instance, an electric toothbrush using deep learning algorithms can improve your dental hygiene. What is happening with AI today is not new, but what is different now is the speed; change is happening at a faster rate. However, to improve AI we will need more personal data, which will lead us to cross a creepy line in the future.
Image Description | N/A

Ils programment leurs vies comme on programme un ordinateur

(They are programming their lives the same way we would program a computer)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 25.10.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | addiction, artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | IFTTT services target the general public, and the goal of such services is to let digital devices handle people's professional and personal lives. Some people are worried about the potential risks of this "cyber life". For instance, there are privacy issues. Since 2012, there have been around 1,5 million connections between apps and object on IFTTT. As a result, IFTTT collected a lot of personal information (e.g. photos, emails, etc.).
Image Description | N/A

Google's future is useful, creepy and everywhere: nine things learned at I/O

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, privacy, threat
Summary | Google presented their new technology and their main focus is artificial intelligence. Google's Assistant is now proactively listening and making suggestion (for instance to leave the house early because of traffic) without users having to activate it by saying "OK Google". It will also be available accross devices. Google are attempting to replace Siri on Apple devices. Google's Assistant is much better developed in being able to understand colloquial commands. They are also working on connecting their Assistant with the camera, so that one could hold up the phone to a restaurant and get reviews about that restaurant pulled up. This has huge potential for making the lives of visually impaired people easier.
Image Description | Reuters and Getty images of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and the Google Assistant home speaker.
Image Tags | female(s), Google, male(s), YouTube

Das ist an Messenger-Verschwörungstheorien dran

(This is the deal with messenger conspiracy theories)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, Snapchat, texting, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A list of popular messengers is analyzed in terms of how well they protect their users' privacy. The safest one is Signal and many others have end-to-end encryption, for instance WhatsApp. They still collect the metadata though (interlocutors, time of interaction, location). Some even save the content that is sent around - most shockingly Snapchat which is popular becuase it supposedly leaves no trace. Some messengers supposedly have ties with national security ministries, like Telegram in Russia and Viber in Israel. Apple recently refused to work with the FBI in giving away a customer's personal information.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen with messengers and a video about messengers.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, smartphone, WhatsApp

Die CIA an meinem Tisch

(The CIA at my table)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Frankfurter Allgemeine
Date | 9.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | Amazon's new Echo device - a voice command artificial intelligence client is the perfect surveillance device when you think about it. It is equipped with sophisticated microphones that can decipher voice commands from any direction even if the TV is on. It turns on once its artificial intelligence persona Alexa is called and turns off after the order is finished. Digital corporations are increasingly developing encryption for all digital transactions because otherwise users become very vulnerable to attacks from hackers and the government.
Image Description | Amazon Echo standing on a table.

Page 1 of 1