Greetings, Everyone! 🌟
For the past few decades, terms like “AI” and “ML” have been the hot topics of tech enthusiasts, particularly in the IT world. We have witnessed tremendous growth in the industry of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across nearly all sectors for our good, or is it?!
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: Boon or Bane?
From being voice assistants on our smartphones to acting as generative assistants for various tasks, from finding errors in text to protecting entire servers and systems, AI is omnipresent. Whether it’s in education, healthcare, construction, art, literature, cybersecurity, or even daily chores, AI has made a significant impact. But is this beneficial? Is it advantageous? Or does it pose a problem? What about security and privacy? While AI empowers many, its potential for misuse cannot be ignored. Unethical actors can leverage it for destruction, from eroding genuine skills to facilitating security breaches and privacy violations.
The Duality of AI: Power and Peril
It’s not news that students use these technologies not only for their studies but also to cheat during assignments and exams. Companies and nations leverage AI to discover new medicines and unknown viruses, but also to locate people during wars to launch attacks. AI is widely used in cybersecurity to protect company data and by cybercriminals to destroy it.
The Dark Side: Privacy Concerns and Unethical Applications
Companies like Google and Meta use our data to target-advertise products to us. Disturbingly, there have been reports of girls and women attempting or successfully committing suicide because their AI-generated pictures and videos were leaked as revenge porn or worse -JUST FOR FUN, highlighting the weaponization of this technology.
AI and Creativity: A Blurred Line
AI has significantly transformed the creation of art and literature. However, concerns regarding originality and the potential for misuse remain. While creating high-quality products now requires less effort and creativity, there are increasing concerns about privacy and security.
The Case of AI-Powered Chips: Convenience at a Cost
Qualcomm, an American multinational corporation known for its semiconductors, software, and wireless technology services, has made strides in AI with its Snapdragon (SD) series which exemplifies the convenience AI-powered chips bring to smartphones with their latest smartphone chipset, SD 8 Gen 3. This success has extended to laptops with the SD X-Plus and the SD X-Elite laptop chipsets, promising features like battery & performance optimizations.
However, a feature Microsoft calls as “photography memory”, which is known as Microsoft Recall, raises significant security concerns. This particular feature records everything done on a computer by taking screenshots every few seconds and storing them locally. While some may find this useful, those with knowledge of information security see it as a potential goldmine for cybercriminals. Imagine stolen passwords or sensitive information accessed simply by searching keywords by cybercriminals, just like how you would normally do.
Safeguarding Ourselves in the Age of AI
Given these dangers, we must be vigilant. A single leaked photo can fuel revenge porn, and a seemingly harmless online post can trigger a major security breach. The question becomes: how do we protect ourselves? My personal suggestion is that each of us who uses a particular technology should learn atleast the basics of it to avoid such issues. AI or Cloud, Intel or AMD, Android or Apple, learning the technology we use enhance both our privacy and understanding of how they function.
The Cloud Factor: Trust and Transparency
On the other hand, the potential for companies like META, Microsoft, or Google to store this data in the cloud in the future, not locally anymore, raises further concerns. They are already collecting vast amounts of data with or without our concerns. What would possibly stop them from using such features for more targeted advertising or even user location tracking? META had to face cases regarding this due to their unethical actions of selling the data to their clients, so they can target advertise us as well. Have you ever wonder why ads of shoes or bags popping out on Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and e-commerce website just after few minutes of talking about buying one with someone else? Magic huh?
The Apple Incident: A Breach of Privacy?
Consider the recent news about Apple users claiming that their old, deleted photos reappeared on their devices after the iOS 17.5 update on May 13 highlighting the problem. Apple attributed this to a rare “database corruption” bug. Even if we accept this explanation, questions remain: How could DELETED photos reappear, and why were they stored in Apple’s database at all in the first place? They were deleted for some reason. Apple, a multinational and multi-billion dollar company, known for its emphasis on privacy, shouldn’t have such issues. This incident, from a company known for its privacy focus, underscores the need for robust safeguards.
Are We Ready for the AI Age?
I am neither a fan nor a hater of AI and ML. Even I have used them in the past and will be using them in the future as they improve the quality of the work for the fact. However, embracing AI requires responsible development, ethical considerations, and robust security measures to harness its potential for good and mitigate the risks. Only then can we navigate this technological age with comfort and confidence. Given all this, the pervasiveness of AI necessitates a critical and crucial question: Are we truly prepared to welcome this new era, The Age of AI?!
For now, it’s time for me to sign off 😉. Till then, Peace Out! ✌🏼.
Yours Truly & Sincerely,
Sharzun ✌🏼
