viralamo

Menu
  • Technology
  • Science
  • Money
  • Culturs
  • Trending
  • Video

Subscribe To Our Website To Receive The Last Stories

Join Us Now For Free
Home
Technology
AI Weekly: The election
Technology

AI Weekly: The election

07/11/2020

In the United States, there was nothing else this week except for the presidential election. More people voted in this election than in any other previous U.S. presidential election — a total of 143,518,226 votes and counting. As we close out a long, stressful week, it appears all but a formality that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be the country’s next President and Vice President. Meanwhile, Donald Trump rages on in a toothless effort to hang onto power.

The results of the election were not the resounding referendum against white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, and bigotry that many had hoped for. But at least the fears about how technology could tip the scales of this election didn’t apparently come to pass — many were concerned about numerous threats from (or enabled by) technology, from deepfakes to bots to hacking. It’s true that technology certainly contributed to, or at least enabled, some of those threats, and we may not know much about the extent of their effects for some time, but it’s a relief that it’s not been so onerous that it’s dominated conversations about the election results. Instead, all eyes are on the slow trickle of run-of-the-mill ballot counting. We’ve heard little in the way of the controversy that could have emerged because of voting machine flaws; conversations have been more focused on things like how Nebraska divides its electoral votes and the political predilections of independent voters in Maricopa County than hacked voting systems.

Though technology wasn’t the star of the show this week, it’s there under the surface, which actually jibes with its place in life and work more generally. Even when you don’t see it, it’s there. Even if you don’t realize that algorithms are making decisions (or are contributing to people making decisions) for you and about you, they are. This is by no means the last we’ll hear about AI-powered threats to elections, businesses, and day-to-day life.

We’ve covered these stories on VentureBeat, and we’ll continue to cover them. As journalists, we always want to follow the most important, most compelling stories happening in the world. But as tech journalists, it can be challenging to find our lane in those massive stories, from the pandemic to the election. Our small team, though, has done a commendable job doing just that. And so, at a moment that feels like a Moment, I’m pausing to pointing back to the excellent work that my colleagues have produced leading up to the election.

They wrote about how AI-powered polling predictions held up against human pollsters, and how some of those AI predictors may gain some more attention in future U.S. elections.

They wrote about how chatbots like IBM’s Watson Assistant will likely play an increasing role in how people grab relevant information leading up to election day and beyond, although the assistants seemed to lag a bit in this cycle.

They wrote about how tech running amok could threaten the election, the dangers of crippling misinformation (sometimes from other countries), weaponized information leaks, and cyberattacks of various kinds.

They wrote about how bots are an effective means of rapidly spreading misinformation like conspiracy theories, disrupting online conversations, fomenting divisiveness, and more.

They wrote about how social media titans like Facebook and Twitter continue to struggle with managing the outsized impact they have — how people largely distrust them, how their efforts at culling dangers on their platforms can be manipulated, and thus how removing a few Nazi symbols from campaign pages isn’t moving the needle much.

They wrote about the threat of deepfakes, a bogeyman that hung over the months and weeks preceding the election. They wrote about how it caught the attention of the U.S. Congress as far back as the summer of 2019.

They wrote about Kamala Harris’ track record on AI policy and her history with Silicon Valley. They wrote about California’s Prop 25 and how algorithms may impact the cash bail system. They wrote about how U.S. tech policy may shift if the Senate flips to the Democrats.

Behind the names on those bylines are our copy editors, Karen Spiegelman and Ramlah Yavar, who rarely get the credit they deserve — for not just catching errors, but for pushing writers to perfect their work, harden their arguments, and tighten up their headlines.

As the election sidles toward a Biden/Harris victory, some people are dancing and some are just quietly relieved. But we have not reached a mountaintop. This election has served to do what the pandemic has done: highlight the many cracks, flaws, and endemic problems in our country’s values and systems. Technology underpins much of it; social media continues to be a scourge, the threats posed by bots and deepfakes will only grow, algorithmic injustice will persist, and AI-powered tools may be used as weapons.

But we have reached a plateau of sorts — a flat spot in the midst of the long climb where we can sit down for a moment, take a breath, and appreciate the work we’ve done and the progress we’ve made. We’ll take the weekend, but we’ll get back to it on Monday. There’s more to do.


How startups are scaling communication:

The pandemic is making startups take a close look at ramping up their communication solutions. Learn how


Source link

Share
Tweet
Pinterest
Linkedin
Stumble
Google+
Email
Prev Article
Next Article

Related Articles

Tech execs urge Washington to accelerate AI adoption for national security
Microsoft and OpenAI, the AI research lab in which Microsoft …

Microsoft and OpenAI propose automating U.S. tech export controls

Dexcom makes controlling blood sugar far simpler for diabetes patients — and everyone else too
If you’ve ever wondered if the data we’re amassing will …

Dexcom makes controlling blood sugar far simpler for diabetes patients — and everyone else too

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Find us on Facebook

Related Posts

  • Remembering the startups we lost in 2019 – TechCrunch
    Remembering the startups we lost in 2019 …
    27/12/2019
  • BMW and Olo pilot in-car food ordering for U.S. drivers
    BMW and Olo pilot in-car food ordering …
    22/11/2019
  • Senator backing anti-crypto bill calls out Zoom’s lack of end-to-end crypto
    Amid pressure, Zoom will end-to-end encrypt all …
    17/06/2020
  • Razer Blade 15 debuts with Intel Core i7, Nvidia GeForce RTX Super, and 300Hz display
    Razer Blade 15 debuts with Intel Core …
    02/04/2020
  • Pwns for sale: Scythe prepares a marketplace for sharing simulated hacks
    Pwns for sale: Scythe prepares a marketplace …
    14/02/2020

Popular Posts

  • Nvidia hid how many GPUs it was selling to cryptocurrency miners, says SEC
    Crypto-driven GPU crash makes Nvidia miss Q2 …
    08/08/2022 0
  • 10 Most Successful Infomercials Ever – Listverse
    11/07/2022 0
  • 10 Menu Hacks from Your Favorite Fast …
    12/07/2022 0
  • 10 Artistic Masterpieces Created Super Fast – …
    12/07/2022 0
  • Russian ‘hacktivists’ are causing trouble far beyond Ukraine
    Russian ‘hacktivists’ are causing trouble far beyond …
    12/07/2022 0

viralamo

Pages

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2022 viralamo
Theme by MyThemeShop.com

Ad Blocker Detected

Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.

Refresh