British political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which has been processing data collected from Facebook’s back-end platform, is suspected of having illegally acquired unauthorized access to 50 million user profiles that were then used to assist the election campaign of US President Donald Trump.
The negative coverage of the social network giant immediately sparked public outcry, as personal data were found to have been collected and reused for political purposes.
At the same time as this was reported, there were also reports that a self-driving Uber vehicle had hit and killed a pedestrian in the US, the first time that someone had been killed in an accident involving a self-driving car. Both these incidents are evidence of the kind of problems that are caused by these much-hyped technologies.
The issues of information security, personal privacy and artificial intelligence (AI) have become factors of change that lie hidden on the electronic highway of global data exchange.
The universal spread of digital networks is reaching deep into our information-dependent lives, and our mode of thinking and how we use information is becoming greatly dependent on the environment created by information technology content and hardware.
We now hand over our private data to our continually used social network software; upload private data, images and video to online cloud platforms; and aspire to commute in self-driving vehicles: Would we be able to live our lives without the mediation of information technology?
More public attention should be given to thinking about what we should do if all this information is misused or if AI runs amok, as always happens in doomsday movies.
The late British physicist Stephen Hawking warned us that human technology has been advancing too fast, and that because of human greed and idiocy, AI-controlled robotics and digital devices could lead to our destruction.
Hawking’s concerns are a warning that the ever-increasing pace of technological advancement and reliance on AI technology could “accidentally” lead to biological or nuclear disaster, and that this could result in the destruction of humanity.
However, as a great war still has not occurred, the question is whether we should not be more concerned about the silent digital workings of machines and devices that steal our personal data, or attacks by digital viruses.
Information security breaches will always be the “payback” for human greed. The global information management community is made up of different ethnic groups, nationalities, systems and business interests, and this in turn leads to more ethical issues.
Businesspeople are continuously lobbying the US Congress to enact legislation that would deregulate the use of autonomous vehicles. Surely this is one example of how human greed allows business interests to override technological neutrality.
Cambridge Analytica’s alleged theft of personal data from Facebook is just one more instance of such human greed.
In the blockbuster movie Avatar, there are all kinds of technological wonders on the planet Pandora. Human beings seem to replicate the greed of the characters depicted in the movie.
Hawking believed that we “need to control [the potential of destruction] by our logic and reason,” as he advised the public to be fully prepared for the challenges that would be posed by AI technology.
The question is whether anyone listened to what he said and will take his admonitions to heart.
Chao Che-sheng is an assistant professor in Kainan University’s Department of Information Communications.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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