These are my reading notes for Code Fellows
https://gizmodo.com/amazon-workers-demand-jeff-bezos-cancel-face-recognitio-1827037509
Much like what occurred at Google and Microsoft, Amazon workers pleaded with Jeff Bezos to stop selling facial recognition software to police and government agencies – specifically US border control. It turns out Amazon heavily marketed their facial recognition software, which tracks people’s faces in real-time, to these law enforcement agencies.
Due to intense pressure from employees and t he ACLU, Amazon shareholders demanded the company stop selling the service to police. This is the first time such a thing occurred at Amazon.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-democracy-survive-big-data-and-artificial-intelligence/
The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015… These contain information that reveals how we think and feel.
This article details how every single thing will soon become ‘intelligent’ – smart factories, smart cities, smart homes, smart nations (Singapore and China are some noteworthy mentions). This is in no small part due to AI now essentially programming itself via machine learning (Google DeepMind, et al). The worrying part is that half of today’s jobs will be in danger of being replaced by an algorithm. More worryingly, “super-intelligence” is deemed to be a serious threat to humanity – moreso than nuclear weapons – by Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and others.
Citizen scores are given to Chinese citizens, and these determine whether people can receive loans, travel visas, or even jobs. A possible “western” alternative would be with ‘personalized prices’, where prices vary depending on a user/person’s “score.” The remainder of the article discusses how bad actors can influence elections, which we very visibly saw in the mid 2010’s with Cambridge Analytica.