Unmasking AI: Big Tech’s Data Gold Rush and the Threat to User Privacy

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Mon September 25, 2023Fri September 29, 2023By techdigestdaily.com
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Unmasking AI: Big Tech’s Data Gold Rush and the Threat to User Privacy

Big Tech, AI, and the Pitfalls of User Data Monetization

* Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, is designating artificial intelligence (AI) a “surveillance technology”.
* Her statement came on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking a deep dive into why companies dependent on user data monetization are showing a burning fascination for AI.
* Whittaker’s perspective critically examines the relationship between AI and user data, exposing the ethical problems and privacy concerns it raises.

AI: A Hidden Eye?

Big Tech’s Love Affair with AI: Not a Romance Novel

Data, they say, is the new gold and for the ‘Gold Rush’ of companies thronging to buy, sell, and monetize user data, AI is the shiny new pickaxe. And in the middle of this corporate scramble, we have Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, calling out this rushed infatuation for something much more intimate – surveillance. It’s akin to someone announcing at a wedding, “The husband is only marrying for money!” Grabs your attention, doesn’t it?

Artificial Intelligence: The ‘Peeping Tom’ of the Digital Age?

Whittaker’s perspective, far from being a mere sensationalist’s claim, comes as a bold examination of the thin line partitioning AI’s transformative capabilities and its potential as an invasive technology. She warns that in the wrong hands, this wonder tech could slip from playing Sherlock, helping solve problems, to being a creepy stalker messing with people’s right to privacy.

Now, allow me my own “hot take”. It’s grand to see folks like Meredith Whittaker challenging Big Tech’s unchecked enthusiasm for AI, flaunting their criticisms like a matador’s cape in the bullfight. Small wonder that our AIs are acting a lot more like HAL 9000, the control-freak computer from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, than the helpful C-3PO. We should all be asking, just because we CAN play God with technology, does it mean we SHOULD? Perhaps it’s time for a re-evaluation, wouldn’t you agree? Before our AI overlords start reading this over our shoulders and shooting lasers at us for dissent; we don’t want that sequel.

Original Article: https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/25/signals-meredith-whittaker-ai-is-fundamentally-a-surveillance-technology/