Critical Self-Reflection

    After being an advocate for technology, beginning in the early 1990s,  I now ask myself, "Is this technology really of any use?" The Smart Phone is a great invention. It is the fictional device used for voice communication from the television series Star Trek brought to life. But what about all the people now who stare at it incessantly while walking through traffic or on our pre-Covid-19 crowded streets? This use of the phone is annoying to say the least and dangerous a fair part of the time as people must move aside to make way for these distracted people.

 

     Another technology which I'll be holding my judgement on involves Artificial Intelligence (AI). I say involves because AI is a means a lot of things from chess-playing computers to self-driving cars. If you want to begin to understand AI go back and re-learn your junior high school and high school math because the basis of AI is Machine Learning. The study of the math behind AI answers that long ago questions often posed to Math teachers, "What is all this Math good for?" Take a look at the Introduction to Machine Learning from the Online school Udemy and you'll quickly find out!

     Back to my rant. I'm worried about Deep Fakes. These are videos and pictures created to give the impression of an individual saying something they never have said before. These are Fakes but created with the latest editing techniques available. They can make self-reflection look stunning---so that we believe our politicians have our best interests in mind. Deep Fakes can move people to action so they they make room for others in their lives, so they believe it is the highest form of humanity to have a publicly funded safety net for those unlucky enough to not carefully choose their parents.

      Deep Fakes can also be used to create phony evidence which might land people in jail for crimes they didn't commit. Or make people believe that certain politicians appear drunk in public. The list is staggering and a bit frightening. 

     We all need to understand that Deep Fakes are a part of our current reality and to make allowances for them by being less quick to anger or to judge. It is truly the challenge of our technological age.