A.I. Is Altering What We Know

By: Gowri Gopakumar

The use of Artificial Intelligence (or A.I.) has grown to become an integral part of society. From self checkout lines to automated voice replies, A.I. continues to be all around us. However, where is the line drawn for A.I. involvement in our lives? That’s something even now as a society we all are trying to decide.

While it is hard to deny the productive boost that A.I. has provided society, it is also important not to overlook its more harmful effects on our communities. With the rise of social media and a digital footprint, A.I. has become a key tool in consuming one’s personal information. While scam emails and text messages have always been something to be wary of, even phone calls now have become a new target to infiltrate people’s privacy, as “... the call could be recorded, expressing a fear that the recording could then be used to train an AI using their voice.” This could become a new scary reality, as “according to a recent report from computer security software company McAfee, these copies can match 85 percent to the real voice. The same report included other alarming statistics, including that, in some cases, just three seconds of audio is all that is needed to clone a person's voice.” Consumers now are wary of whether the benefits of A.I. are worth possibly giving up their autonomy as individuals.

Unfortunately, A.I. impersonation doesn't stop there. Nowadays all around social media are videos of celebrities or politicians with what is known as deepfakes. “A deepfake refers to a specific kind of synthetic media where a person in an image or video is swapped with another person's likeness.” Essentially, one can alter the perceived reality of what someone has said or done to something completely different. This remains problematic as “a recent survey from UCC confirmed that people recall fake news more than real news. The results of the survey indicated that voters may form false memories after seeing fabricated news stories, especially if those stories align with their political beliefs, according to a new study.” With the rising use of deep fakes, mass upheaval threatens our social balance, as mistaken words are used as weapons to target beliefs and ideas. “The misrepresentation of individuals in deepfakes has led to generation of blackmail materials to falsely incriminate people. As these videos and audio recordings can be difficult to verify, the negative impact on reputation can be difficult to recover from, even when verified as a deepfake.” Reputation in today’s world is critical to keep credibility to oneself, which is why deepfakes are more threatening than ever. Deepfakes only bring more chaos to the polarized nation of ideologies.

Despite artificial intelligence’s intended purpose to aid human decision making, it seems that A.I. is completely changing the playing field to something different. At the end of the day, the question still remains – will A.I. be our greatest asset or greatest downfall?

Sources:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-voice-impersonation-scams-rise-oldrepublictitle-zoecc?trk=public_post

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2023/10/consumers-are-voicing-concerns-about-ai

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained

https://statuslabs.com/blog/what-is-a-deepfake