AI, big data, and the end of humanity

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Steven L. Shields

AI, big data, and the end of humanity

Posted : 2023-07-30 16:35

Updated : 2023-07-30 16:35

By Steven L. Shields

It happened again this morning. I pressed my bank's smartphone app, and a warning message popped up. "Keep your data safe by updating to the newest app." Bug fixes, hackers smarter than the programmers, and data breaches are reported all the time. I get similar messages when I go to my bank's website. I access the website a couple of times a month. Each time I log in, I get sent to the security page and am asked to download several "safety" measures. The programs I downloaded last time are no longer good enough for some reason.

We were told from day one that computer technology would make us more productive, simplify our lives, and give us more leisure time. Not only is that not true, but our privacy also ― the data surrounding who we are, where we live, where we work, and how we go about our daily business ― is no longer ours to control.

A recent headline in the local news told us that the so-called "Personal Information Protection Commission had fined OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT, 3.6 million won (2,800 USD) for exposing the personal information of more than 680 users in Korea. Do the math! Your personal information is worth less than 5,000 won. Yet all the "big data" companies (who claim lives will be made better by collating the minute details of life) are laughing all the way to the bank. Every app, website and place you do business exposes your most intimate details to just about everyone else trying to get you to buy their product or use their services.

A friend was recently surprised that after she bought something on Facebook, she began receiving dozens of advertisements on her newsfeed hawking other products and services that were related, sometimes only in the smallest way, to what she bought. A few years ago, a United States senator, in a hearing in Washington DC, asked Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg how they could make any money when they let people use their app/website with no membership fees. He declared that advertising revenue is how they make money. But it's not just advertising. Facebook, and all the rest, take all your sign-up information, take every keystroke you make, every news item you read, and sell that information to the highest bidder.

Now AI has invaded our lives. The prospects are grim. A recent article suggested that AI could carry out coups. You know, overthrown governments, subvert democracy, and take away the people's choice. The technology could easily go rogue. Are governments powerful enough to put on the brakes? Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "godfather" of AI, recently urged governments to stop machine takeover.

In Australia, an errant algorithm caused many welfare recipients to receive demands to repay the government for benefits received wrongly. In many cases, the amounts were thousands of dollars. Staff at the welfare offices assumed the letters their office sent were legitimate when clients called to find out why. Officious civil servants told callers they had no choice but to comply if they got a letter demanding repayment. All their internal (and electronic-based) records showed that the person owed the money. The result was suicide by many welfare recipients before the government discovered the error.

It all started with an innocuous magnetic strip on the back of your credit card several decades ago. Then came the ubiquitous "bonus point" cards and systems. The merchants sell that information (your phone number, for example) and make more money than your "buy 10, get one free" deal. Did you never wonder why you get all those marketing phone calls? Now business consultants are telling businesses they must "ride the wave of generative AI to … create new and disruptive ways of earning revenue…" They are warned they will lose in big ways if they don't. Yet at the same time, AI is fueling scams; no one seems to be able to stop them.

The best way to protect yourself is to get off the grid. The problem is, you can't rent or buy a house, you can't connect utilities, and you can't even drive a car or ride a bus anymore. Nothing in our lives is analog. All it takes is the slightest electronic disruption; life as we know it now could be irreparably damaged or destroyed. We have no choice in the matter. I don't know how to change things or protect myself from data and identity theft. So next time you get a notice from your website or app to update to the latest operating system or the newest version of the app, you better do it now. But even so, there's no guarantee. The programmers and hackers are having a field day with us!

Rev. Steven L. Shields {slshields@gmail.com} has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. He is the president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea. He served as copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect The Korea Times' editorial stance.