In The Age of AI

Stopping to write at about the 15-minute mark and, so far, this documentary hasn't said much yet that I didn't already know. I feel like most people are aware of how all these tech companies are using their data today, but this documentary is treating it like this is completely new information (although the documentary is 5 years old, so maybe at the time this was all very new information). One thing I did find kind of funny was that Google's earliest motto was "don't be evil", considering everything tech companies do nowadays. 

About 20 minutes in, one question the whole Alexa/Google Home segment raised for me is, where is all that data being stored? Storing such ridiculous quantities of data can't be cheap, but the companies must have some way of deciding it's worth it since they do so anyway.  

Pausing again at the 30-minute mark, Mactaggart's efforts were remarkable, and I'm curious how well they hold up today. The concept of a browser-wide "do not sell my information" option was not something that I've heard of before, but after this I'll look more into that, since going on every website and having to reject cookies manually is really annoying. 

45 minutes in, although China's security system probably does a lot of good in preventing crime, it comes at a heavy cost to personal privacy, especially since, as the documentary shows, it's being blatantly used for discrimination.

AI as it's defined in the video seems to not have much benefit to the average person, being really only helpful to the tech companies and governments that run them.  Generative AI, something that the documentary doesn't cover because it was before its time, is something that I have similar feelings towards. It may have small innocuous uses like helping to write an email, but it also comes with the costs of things like academic integrity, critical thought, jobs, to say nothing of the environmental impact of these technologies. I try not to be anti-technology and development, but I truly feel very little optimism about these industries.