I found this week to be very interesting and actually reassuring to hear about what communication might look like in the future. In her video, Shannon Vallor did a great job explaining where AI was likely to go and how AI can be used to make good social change. Having watched many movies about cyborgs taking over the world, she made me feel at ease when she explained that this type of technology is extremely far away from being achieved. Although we can’t really predict the future it was interesting to hear the thoughts and opinions of some of the leaders in these technologies. I especially like the discussion from Vanderbilt University with Doug Fraser, Corbette Doyle, and Jaco Hamman (This is where I got the inspiration for my two narratives). Even though they all had different educational backgrounds and expertise, they had similar thoughts about the future of AI and its challenges. I particularly found it interesting when they discussed the ethics of AI and what that meant for its future. Corbette Doyle brought up the idea of humans having personal androids (or AI personal assistants) to be used as extensions of humans where they can be conscious and prompt for wisdom (Bruff, 2019). To me, this is a scary thought but with how fast technology is growing it could be a likely scenario. Another interesting topic that was brought up from a question from the audience, was the problems that current AI has with intersectionality. Everyone seemed to agree with this but Doug Fraser admitted that it is a current problem with AI but he thinks that AI, if designed correctly, could do a better job with these issues than any human could. He was very optimistic that AI could take in all of the factors and limit bias to solve the problems of intersectionality (Bruff, 2019). As I reflect on the challenges and concerns with AI, machine learning, and automation, I want to be optimistic too but I think there will hesitancy when using this technology. See my 2 Speculative Futures in the videos below.
References
Bruff, D. (Host). (2019, May 12). Leading Lines (No. 60-The Future of Digital Literacies) [Audio podcast episode]. https://soundcloud.com/leadinglines/episode-060-future-of-digital-literacies-faculty-panel
Vallor, S. (2018, November 6). Lessons from the AI Mirror [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40UbpSoYN4k&t=824s