In the past years technology has only gotten bigger and better. This is no exception to artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, but what is Artificial Intelligence? Nick Heath wrote an article called What is AI? Everything you need to know about Artificial Intelligence. In the article he explains that “AI systems will typically demonstrate at least some of the following behaviours associated with human intelligence: planning, learning, reasoning, problem solving, knowledge representation, perception, motion, and manipulation and, to a lesser extent, social intelligence and creativity.”. Although there are often debates of what qualifies as AI and what definition does it justice, the definition by Nick Heath to me is pretty solid. In this article he also goes on to explain that there are several types of AI but that the one commonly seen in TV programs and Cinema happens to be what is called Artificial General Intelligence. He says “This is the sort of AI more commonly seen in movies, the likes of HAL in 2001 or Skynet in The Terminator, but which doesn’t exist today and AI experts are fiercely divided over how soon it will become a reality.”. This line of the article makes me wonder if it is bound to happen. I believe that it’s already happening. Perhaps one can say that it has yet to be seen but I would argue that even though it’s not so “visible” around us, that it’s actually unfolding before our eyes. 

Things often always start as ideas or visions. If you can think of it, there’s a chance it can be made if it’s worked on. For example, the Iphone. In the years before its release, the idea of it would probably seem over the top. One man’s vision made it happen and the Iphone can do things with AI that has made our life easier. Tesla cars, who would’ve thought that a car could be improved on, to even include features like autopilot that would let the car drive itself almost as though a human was driving it. These all start off as ideas and eventually they arrive right before our eyes.  The article sparked the idea I mentioned earlier and reminded me of Replika. Just like the Iphone and Tesla cars,  Replika started as an idea, due to tragedy, and it has been huge in AI. Replika started off as an idea to be able to communicate with someone through AI. In this case Eugenia Kuyda feared losing memories of her friend who had died in an accident. She says, in the Youtube video The Story of Replika, the AI app that becomes you, that after the accident she later started to forget how her friend who passed behaved and acted that all she had to go by was their old text messages. This then sparks an idea to try to revive him through AI in some form or app that would allow the app to respond back just as her friend normally would. This is done through the app being able to use text messages to basically study and become the person it’s studying. This leads to Replika being made and has been used by the public. I believe after reading the story of Replika that the abilities of AI can be pushed farther and perhaps it’ll become bigger like in Netflix’s Black Mirror episode Be Right Back. Do you think AI can or should be pushed to its full potential?

As I read, Cicero’s Twitter: Tom Standage on the forgotten history of social media, I came across a phrase in one of the questions asked by the interviewer Jesse Hicks that says 

“Yet today many of us would assume that not only should social media not be regulated, but that it can’t be regulated.”

This particular phrase stuck out to me because of the idea that most people feel like social media should not be regulated and it’s impossible to regulate it, despite some advancements done over the years. In a perfect world I believe that social media should be regulated because there has definitely been some obscene things being posted daily and most importantly a lot of misinformation. But we live in the real world and that’s just not possible, and I say this because there are a lot of areas and technicalities that would need to be covered. Facebook is one of those social media sites that has tried to stop users from posting anything that gets flagged by their filters that would seem inappropriate. They also have done this with other platforms they own such as Instagram where you can post anything but if it contains any explicit content it will blur it out and allow the users to click if they wish to see it anyways. Facebook and Instagram also have a fact checked feature that allows its users to see why a certain article that was shared contains false information and/or is not reliable.

Props to Facebook for making it happen but even as it tries to regulate what gets shared and posted, a lot still slips through the cracks and there’s often no concrete security. Can we be upset at Facebook and other social media sites/platforms for this? To some extent maybe they can be doing more but this issue doesn’t just fall on them. They are regulating as best they can and in some way it feels like it’s still not enough, so perhaps social media can’t be regulated. 

If it can’t be regulated, then is it just big free for all? Another idea to think about should be about what values are being spread because of social media. As seen in the video, How social media is affecting teens, it is mentioned that over the years the values presented to the people have changed from a sense of community to wanting to reach for fame. This is evident all around us when you start to think about all the internet celebrities on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms. Many of today’s youth strive to be what is known as “Instagram famous” by posting content that attracts other people. Although not everyone makes it big, the goal is still there and for those who get to the top, often make the most of what they can with their talents or personality. Others find themselves going through great lengths just for fame even if it means corrupting their morality. 

The only thing most kids want nowadays is to be famous on the internet and with how easy the internet allows it to begin is something that makes me wonder if there can be any regulation on this. Obviously it would be impossible because then it gets complicated on how values are portrayed and what about them would need to be regulated. Perhaps the only way to regulate anything begins at home with parents reinforcing values and taking control of how much time a child spends on social media. Maybe, some form of regulation starts at home and the responsibility is shared with parents and the social media giants.

The internet has grown vastly since it’s start in 1957. It has allowed for a lot of change to happen in our society that at the time might have seemed absurd. Despite the progress it has made through the years, I believe that the internet truly became something significant for the people in the early 2000s. I don’t intent to discredit the many important things that the internet has done for us in between the years of its start and the 2000’s but I do want to express that when social media began to take form and take off, anyone with a computer could sign up and be part of this network that would allow connections between people all over the world. This blog will be published online in 2020 and as of the year, social media has only grown bigger since it started. 

I believe 1997 was an important year and I’m not just saying that because it’s my birth year, but because it’s also the birth year of the first recognizable social media site Six Degrees. Unfortunately Six Degrees did not get to see the success of its successors but I think it did set up a new way for people to see what else the internet could offer. A great quantity of social media sites that we know today as linkedIn, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter would start up and pick up a huge following. Despite never having experienced Six Degrees, I have experienced all other social media sites that succeeded it especially the ones listed earlier.

So now we are in 2020 and not only has the list of social media sites grown, but so has its potential. We now have social media sites and platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Snapchat, Onlyfans, Patrion,Tinder, Bumble and Cameo to name a few. These platforms and sites have definitely offered entertainment or even escape from the real world but it has also made it harder to live. You might be asking what do I mean by harder to live, and I think that could mean a lot of things and typically one would assume I’m saying that it gets in the way of everyday life such as it wont let you sleep, or you spend to much time on it, but what I want to focus is on the idea that not many people are speaking about. That idea is the content we see. There’s so much that these sites have done positively for us but it also exposes us to things that we may typically not have seen had it not been for social media. I think in some way social media has desensitized and morally corrupt us. 

Social media has morally corrupted us in the sense that it has made it easier for people to hide behind a screen and express themselves. Sure expression is good, and I’m not saying that good expression does not exist online but most of the expression online often comes from people who like to fight in comment sections on many things from opinions on Tv shows, Music, art and politics. You can even find that people will argue about racism and people dying. It makes people feel brave because you can literally say almost anything and once it gets out of hand they ignore the conversation or block you. It’s crazy to think that every time people get into street fights, or another person is killed by the police, Facebook or other sites are often the first ones the videos are uploaded to and shared by many possibly even before a news station gets a hold of the story. People share these videos without possibly thinking about how the person in the situation must feel. One could argue that these videos are posted to raise awareness and I don’t doubt that because it does but also I think it’s important to think about other ways to do this. Bullying and harassment can often be found on social media and people are always picking sides because it is so much easier to do it online.

I often wonder if the content we see on social media makes it harder for us to live. Theres so much bad things being posted, shared and things trending that I ask myself, Would we be better of without social media? Are we any different compared to a generation that didn’t have social media?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/media/donald-trump-pennsylvania-reliable-sources/index.html

I think this article is worth sharing because the concept behind this portion of the assignment is to battle misinformation with accurate fact-checked information. In the article by CNN it talks about this rally Trump had in Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough Fox news stopped covering the rally because they felt that the rally was too long and believed he was wrapping up. He went on for another 50 minutes. But the most interesting thing about the article was that that Trump was fact checked and it appeared that he made numerous lies at the rally as he is normally one to do so. He lied about a “report” that CNN had made of him having a heart attack, Covid-19 numbers and ironically even talked about how dangerous Covid-19 was while having many people not social distancing at the rally.

My name is Steve Corona, Im from Queens New York. I’m a junior in college and I’m studying Business Administration. I’m a huge fan of movies, music, guitar and cycling amongst other things.