Comments for The Digital Age

Comment on Manipulated Data and How We are Affected by Gabriel Garcia

Gabriel Garcia — Mon, 20 May 2019 16:42:47 +0000

As stated from before, technology has certainly advanced in the case of how advanced it is in the modern era, as said before, it has the ability to use such technological advancements to the advantage of the market. However, at one point or another, people will find drawbacks in technology, mostly pertaining to common human misuse.

As stated in the previous article, the case of which people are essentially being observed in their activities proves to be ethically questionable. People have always been cautious about anything that pertains to their safety. Companies don’t appear to have the intent of doing harm to a person, simply wishing to use the information for advertisements, but even so, this brings the question to just how ethical information gathering really is .

Comment on The most important issues of the Digital Age by Zaria Kangethe

Zaria Kangethe — Fri, 17 May 2019 18:33:39 +0000

To be honest, as pessimistic as it sounds, relying on eyewitness testimony in the future seems more like and inevitably than a possibility. On some level, I believe that this technology will just become increasingly accessible because amongst all possible uses there are going to be less pernicious ones. Maybe I will want to create a Deepfake video of myself just to make a fun video of me flying, and the reality of it is that if I can do that with my own face then I’m probably going to be able to do it with other people’s faces as well.

I would want a future where this technology is never used without consent, but it can be really hard to track people who use these technologies in immoral ways and who are also proficient at hiding themselves online. However, I imagine the biggest obstacle isn’t the original creator but rather all the people after them who end sharing the material.

Comment on The most important parts of the Digital Age by Sean Haggerty

Sean Haggerty — Fri, 17 May 2019 17:11:57 +0000

TJ, thanks for raising the issue of data sovereignty. I think this is especially important to keep in mind considering how much capital is being produced from the private data of citizens. I also share your concern that historically disenfranchised groups might continue to bear the brunt of these costs as social issues reproduce themselves materially and ideologically. This of course is just one of the many problems we now face from globalization and the interconnections produced by the internet.

Hopefully moving forward the possible of a discursive process of legal thought that includes identity groups with less power and social capital will become a more integral part of the production of technologies. It seems doubtful that we can contain the spread of tech, but hopefully we can steer and cajole tech in the right direction.

Comment on CSC105 in the World of Programming by Sean Haggerty

Sean Haggerty — Fri, 17 May 2019 16:58:43 +0000

I was speaking with professor Rodrigues during her office hours about the importance for understanding computing concepts for lay people. It seems to me that although I never see myself going into the field of computer science I also think that to be a responsible global citizen we should have a basic understanding of computing concepts. If we take a look at the Senate hearings on Cambridge Analytica scandal we can see that the digital age is not well understood by our political elites. Perhaps it could also be part of the open source community (if this doesn’t already exist) that could provide educational material about the tech sector. This seems to be a recurring theme especially in politics that the complexities of specialized sectors of the market (ie banking and the housing crisis).

Comment on Manipulated Data and How We are Affected by Luis Lua

Luis Lua — Mon, 13 May 2019 00:30:31 +0000

The digital world is praised for its milestones for connecting people across the world and increasing the speed of data transfer. In the words of Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility. With this in mind, I want to elaborate upon your ending phrase, “need to be more responsible”, with ways to catch and prevent Deep-fakes. One way to expose Deep-feks lies on the simple process of blinking.

It was this task that 3 college students from the University at Albany set out to solve. In their research, they aimed to use computers to help people tell truth from Deep-fakes. To do so, “Our method is based on detection of eye blinking in the videos, which is a physiological signal that is not well presented in the synthesized fake videos” (Li). Why blinking? They proclaim that deep fake videos blink a lot less frequent in comparison with real people. This way, it makes it very clear on how to spot a Deep-fake no matter how realistic the graphics may be.

Although their research solves one aspect of Deep-fake videos, their current method only uses the lack of blinking as a cue for detection. Their research may be useless in a couple of months or years, but their efforts demonstrated the passion needed to combat false information in our Digital Age.

Article:
Li, Y., Chang, M., & Lyu, S. (2018). In Ictu Oculi: Exposing AI Created Fake Videos by Detecting Eye Blinking. 2018 IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS). doi:10.1109/wifs.2018.8630787

Comment on The Vulnerability of Our Virtual Selves by Luis Lua

Luis Lua — Tue, 07 May 2019 20:45:48 +0000

Great job covering the content in class and the implications of it in your own life. I want to point two aspects of your blog post, one being that I mentioned the flaw about Google Photos (if interested, I can tell you how it works in person) and the idea that “if someone was really diligent they could possibly use Deepfake technology in order to manufacture fake media of me”. Specifically, covering the problem of online impersonation.

In Texas, two men were charged for online impersonation on Twitter. To do so, they created fake Twitter accounts and websites designed to impersonate and damage the reputations of women who live here (George). Due to the anonymity of social media, people like them can create website, posts, accounts and so much more to impersonate and jeopardize another human. In our Digital Age, it is amazing that we can upload and share so much among each other, but there is not enough taught on how to protect it. Just like Google Photos, a lot can be easily accessed with the right tools. With this information in the wrong hands, they could use it to end the social, political, or economic status for someone. Apart from punishing online impersonation, I wonder what we can do to prevent such acts from occurring in the future.

Source:
George, P., & George, P. (2018, September 22). Men charged with impersonating Austin women online to damage their reputations. Retrieved May 7, 2019, from https://www.statesman.com/NEWS/20170522/Men-charged-with-impersonating-Austin-women-online-to-damage-their-reputations

Comment on The most important parts of the Digital Age by Kate Smith

Kate Smith — Fri, 03 May 2019 21:49:53 +0000

TJ, your comments regarding dilemmas of the digital age encapsulate some of the thoughts I too have had in the past week. You mention that, “if anything,” things will have to get worse before they get better; though mine is a somewhat pessimistic viewpoint, I tend to align with the “if anything” of it all. Likely, without our full acknowledgment, things have progressed past how we currently view our privacy as being infringed upon. Especially with our increasing reliance on technology as well, I wonder how much people will be able to protect and value their privacy. What if the cost of being unable to fulfill job requirements or social norms – a good example of this could be Google Docs and Gmail. This line of thought also touches in with what you are saying about the pace of technological advancement – the fact that products and services that are inherently biased are being put out on the market without much monitoring means that even if a protocol was put in place, the growth rate could be too much.

Comment on Thoughts on Monday’s Discussion by TJ Calhoun

TJ Calhoun — Fri, 03 May 2019 04:06:41 +0000

Charles raises perhaps one of the most important questions of the digital age which is how much can we rely on computers to do a job that is also subsumed with so much human error. There is no answer. One might argue that at this point they both cripple each other and it is likely impossible to ever create something that is able to work without these large blindspots because the people who create them suffer from them as well. Of all the job AI and machine learning might take over in the future, it should likely stay the furthest away from law and justice matters.

Comment on CSC105 in the World of Programming by Georgia

Georgia — Thu, 02 May 2019 04:03:05 +0000

As someone who has never taken a class in the traditional CS track, it is interesting for me to hear your perspective on this. I think in many Grinnell courses, there are things that get cut out because there simply is not time to cover everything. In computer science, the big ethical questions apparently do not make the cut. Maybe this is another reason the liberal arts are beneficial even to computer science majors. You may not talk extensively about ethics in your CS class, but it’s likely you’ll take a philosophy or sociology class that would make you think about the ethics of technology and its role in society.

Comment on Thoughts on Monday’s Discussion by Charles Carr

Charles Carr — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:30:16 +0000

The point about whether a more accurate algorithm would be better than judges is something I thought about when I chose this article. It might certainly do a better job of adjudicating cases, but the removal of the human element removes possibilities to view defendants within the circumstances and context of their cases. On the other hand, judges obviously still mess up quite a bit. All of this points to the fact that our criminal justice system is inherently corrupted, and that any element added in the name of efficiency is a bandage at best for something that needs widespread reform.