We’re reaching a point in time where human-machine interactions are going far beyond us tapping on a screen or typing on a keyboard. Every keystroke and behavior is being used to teach machines to get better at predicting us and therefore better serving our needs.
You may not realize it, but apps, websites, and our devices are interacting with us just as much as we interact with them. What started out as a give-and-take relationship, where apps were giving and we were taking, has now reversed in their favor.
In other words, that app you downloaded to meet cute singles near you has not only gotten you zero dates, but you’ve now contributed to building a comprehensive, worldwide understanding of what people are attracted to – an extremely valuable and lucrative concept that you’re not getting any stake in.
Yes, my grandma always said to give without expecting anything in return. But this, I feel is a little bit different and we should understand what we’re giving away before we give it away.
I’d happily give someone a scratch-off lottery ticket. But if that thing turns out to be worth a few million dollars, I’d like a few dollars for my wallet too.
This is what caught my attention in technology:
Why Internet Users are Entitled to the Right To Be Forgotten
We haven’t even begun to see the true connectedness of the Internet. APIs are currently connecting anything to everything. In the future, this will have inconceivable and irreversible effects. Will a future iteration of the Constitution include the Right To Be Forgotten – a right that citizens can exercise to disconnect their profile from certain apps and have their data be permanently erased from the Internet?
Join me (digitally) for lunch on March 1st to discuss this topic
How the Tinder algorithm actually works
Hypothetically, if you were to swipe on enough thousands of people, you could go through every one. [You’re] going through people one at a time … you’re talking about a line of people and we put the best options up front. It actually means that every time you swipe, the next choice should be a little bit worse of an option. So, the longer you’re on an app, the worse the options get.
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AI is getting very good at understanding emotion
SoundNet can classify anger from audio data in as little as 1.2 seconds regardless of the speaker’s language — just over the time, it takes for humans to perceive anger. Imagine how this could be applied to Siri or Alexa – giving those AIs the ability to understand our emotions. That would be a monumental moment for therapy.
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Even Amazon wants face recognition to be regulated
Amazon has come in for criticism for supplying the technology to police. Last year the American Civil Liberties Union also published a study suggesting that the company’s cloud software, called Rekognition, is racially biased. In the ACLU’s test, the tech falsely matched members of Congress with a database of criminal mugshots, with a disproportionate number of the mismatches being people of color.
National Geographic unveils dinosaur chatbot for kids
Tina [the dinosaur chatbot] is an exciting example of how technology can enhance a child’s learning. The bot uses the new AI technology made available on messenger services earlier this year, and hopes to engage the whole family as you sit down together to chat to Tina the T. rex!