IN THE AGE OF AI

    In my Media Law and Literacy Class, we watched a documentary called "In the Age of AI" produced by Frontline PBS and created in December 2019. This video was frighteningly accurate to what the state of AI would be in 2024. For example, if predicted the Job crisis it would create, how insanely fast the development would be, and how China would use and abuse it. 

    One specific type of AI I want to focus on is Deep learning AI, which mimics the Nero pathways of the human brain. Allowing it to learn incredibly quickly and even create original works. This type of AI was first introduced in Korea during a now infamous tournament of the famous Chinese strategy game Go. Korean Lee Sedol, the world champion at the time, faced Google's "AlphaGo" AI in an incredibly one-sided bout. The AI ended up making completely creative moves that no human had ever thought of before and predicted exactly what Lee Sedol would do. It was 4 wins and lost 1 for AlphaGo, completely humiliating Mr. Lee Sedol. This was a wake-up call for the world, but the one who answered this call with the utmost enthusiasm was China. China declared a hard focus on AI; Xi Jinping, china's "democratically" elected dictator, declared, "China will dominate the AI market and lead the world by 2030." since that declaration, China has now completely changed its society with AI at the forefront. You can now walk into a store, and an AI will track your face, keep track of what you pick up, put in your "cart," and then charge you for it, all without speaking to another human being. It's wild. They also use AI to keep track of your social credit score (SCS).

Your SCS allows you to live in society, comfortable or not. If you have a low SCS, you can be kicked out of school, Fired, jailed, or Barred from traveling internationally and nationally, buying a car, or driving a car (of course, only if it's a new electric car.) If it's a high SCS, you get access to more governmental aids, like health care, and you get praised socially and simply treated better. It has gotten to the point where if people jaywalk, they will be picked up on by cameras with AI built in that recognize their faces. The AI will post a picture of them on a nearby billboard to publicly humiliate them, fine them, and then they lose social credit. It's honestly ridiculous.     The next thing AI has supercharged is Unmanned Vehicles (UMVs), particularly in the trucking industry. Embark, a tech start-up by Alex Rodriguez, aims to revolutionize the trucking industry by creating self-driving trucks. These trucks have AI as a driver and drive themselves across state lines to their destinations. Eliminating the driver does a few things for truck companies; they, for one, mean they don't need to pay them. This also means the trucks can drive 24/7, which means everything moves faster. This will most definitely mean a lot of people will lose their jobs.
Overall, the rapid expansion of AI has been incredibly scary, but I, for one, am still hopeful about it. One thing that fuels this hope is how AI works in the medical field.

AI can predict cancer. That's right; it can predict cancer growth and cancer incredibly early. Particularly in breast cancer, it can look at a series of X-rays from a patient and notice micro tumors growing as they develop and point them out to doctors. Basically, it sees a dot slowly increase, but it is so small a Doctor may miss it. AI is incredible. There is no way around that. With it, humanity is about to elevate itself beyond anything we have done in the past. We just need to keep it in check. Unfortunately, I am a college student at the time of writing and don't have any good recommendations on how to keep it in check. AI is also incredibly scary in the wrong hands, but I look forward to seeing it grow.