It’s safe to say that our private information isn’t private anymore.
New technologies are collecting data to be sold or shared between companies…
in sometimes questionable ways.
Y’all really think that Black Mirror isn’t gonna happen?
Well, it’s not GOING to happen.
It’s already happening.
Let’s start in China, where employers are monitoring their employees’ brain waves.
Oh yeah, you heard that right, monitoring their brain waves.
To be clear, they are not attempting to read the workers’ thoughts, but their emotions.
Factories, state-owned enterprises, and sections of the Chinese military are placing wireless
sensors in employees’ hats that record and transmit data similar to an electroencephalogram,
or EEG.
By analyzing the incoming sensor data, AI models can detect anomalies that might indicate
a spike in anger, depression, or anxiety.
This system is said to help employers find out who’s stressed, modulate break times,
and increase productivity…
in turn spiking company profits by an estimated two billion yuan since 2014.
This tech is being used elsewhere too, like assessing fatigue in high-speed train drivers
and monitoring patients in hospitals.
Sure, it would be dope to find out if your significant other is really fine when they
say “I’m fine” after a fight.
But, how do you regulate something like this?
If emotional data is mineable, what happens if companies nefariously use it to abuse their
power?
I listen to a lot of SZA and Drake -- I’m emotional!
Please don’t use my emotions against me.
China has a Social Credit score: a clout score based on your criminal record, donations to
charity, loyalty to political parties, how many video games you buy, and even your friends’
social credit scores.
This is just like Black Mirror Series three’s Nosedive, where everyone has a score based
on all social interactions.
The Chinese government claims it’s trying to build “trust” with this score, but
its implications can be more sinister.
For instance, in twenty-sixteen, a man was denied a plane ticket because a judge deemed
a court apology “insincere” and placed him on a blacklist, tanking his score.
“Insincerity” is hella subjective, so how would we regulate for everyone’s opinions?
Finally, China is using all this information to make you into a precog: they’re literally
trying to predict political instability using feeds from surveillance cameras, phone usage,
travel records and religious orientation.
Extrapolating the negative consequences, this taps into personal data and can unfairly target
groups based on prejudice, specifically the Uyghur, and other predominantly Muslim populations.
And let’s just say you protest this state-sponsored measure.
That affects your social credit score, which can then deny you things like plane tickets
and jobs, keeping you trapped by the system.
Tracking every arena –– personal, professional, recreational, political, et cetera, –– is
dangerous, especially in the United States, where we value life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.
Like we don’t already know that the government is in our webcams, Siris, and Alexa!
...Thanks.
It’s pretty spooky to think about how systemic issues we’re already grappling pretty hard
with as a society, such as all these biases...
could be magnified by technology we’ve already developed.
America has a lot to deal with right now, so maybe we should sit this tech out.
All these tools can have a prosocial end goal, but it’s too soon to tell if the ends justify
the means.
Data will continue to be collected on us, that’s for sure.
But, with few regulatory systems in place, we gotta keep an eye on this new tech that’s
already just chillin' here, and stop pretending that this is all happening in some distant
dystopian future.
Not only is AI going to run the world someday, but it's already being used to predict the
next global pandemic.
Wanna find out how?
Bet you do.
Check out this video right here.
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