D4TC: Quality vs. Scale

In reality, machines are changing our lives, our very democratic processes, in much more banal and imperceptible ways.

The current conversation on the intrusive qualities of AI and the need for it to be regulated is one that needs to be happening, but what bothers me is even though we know this data processing needs to be regulated, deep down I know that the wrong people will be in charge of its regulation. AI regulations is not something that needs to be decided on by our government. If anything, as a result of this past election that fact should be clear as day. Yes, Elon musk just announced a nonprofit called OpenAI that will try to build “safe AI” but those who pour the most money into this nonprofit will be the ones that have the most input into this “safeAI” idea and how it’s carried out. This idea of sponsors and donors having a huge say in what happens is clear within the American food industry, it’s sickening.

Reading that an AI might be implemented within the prison system is utterly terrifying. Our Criminal Justice already has so many problems and is extremely corrupt, why would you think that any type of AI would be helpful within this field. Within the Criminal Justice field the hierarchical mentality and system is the main problem that needs to be addressed.

“The same goes for a wide range of algorithms already being used elsewhere in the criminal justice system, including a proposed program to use such systems in prisons themselves. Part of a bill introduced to Congress last year, it includes the use of predictive tools to determine things like what type of prison a convicted criminal may serve his or her time inside, or even what kinds of visitation rules he or she may be allowed, as the Atlantic reported this summer.

“Inmates would have no avenue to challenge or appeal their score, through a court or otherwise,” wrote Christopher I. Haugh. “The very concept of predicting crime challenges the presumption of innocence, a central tenet of the American criminal-justice system.”

Scale versus quality, these are two dangerous concepts to make competitors. You would think that quality would be the easy pick. But seeing how having data is becoming increasingly sought after, naturally creating a system that can rapidly analyze and produce results from large quantities of data will take precedence. Why as humans are we sacrificing quality for scale? Are we that desperate to be ‘successful’, ’rich’, ‘seemingly important in society’, ‘selfish’?

MUST READ:

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3065582/the-algorithmic-democracy