Is Artificial Intelligence swooping down on us?

[DutchmenSport]

OK, I've always been one of those who believed in the conspiracy theories: Yes, Elvis is still alive, JFK is living on an island in the Bahamas, Elvis Presley is really alive and well in Argentina!

So, I've been extremely skeptical of all this modern technology happening all around us, you know, "Serie?" "OK Google, I have a question? Do "Smart Televisions" really record the conversations occurring in your own home? If you have a Smart Refrigerator, is it recording everything in your kitchen?

Well, you all decide, but a very strange thing just happened to me.

OK, RV.net has been slow over the last several weeks, and I've been drawn into watching YouTube videos. I'm logged into my own account, and I've noticed how YouTube makes suggestions for new videos that you (or me) might find interesting, yes ... based upon your past viewing experiences.

But these two really take the cake!

My daughter and family recently moved to Hawaii. So, my wife started watching all these different shows on Netflix about Hawaii. She has her own account.

A couple days ago, I made a comment to a post where I used the word "T@B" tear drop travel trailers.

So, you know what? I'm now getting flooded with YouTube suggestions for videos on "T@B" tear drop travel trailers and videos about Hawaii.

Go figure?

And the future push is sell "Smart" RV's that are operated fully from a Smart Phone? Oh my!

[toedtoes]

RedRocket204 wrote:
My comment was primarily sarcasm... except for the part about the advertising. Unless you're doing crime, I seriously doubt there is much interest in the rest of your lives... again, except for the advertising piece.

But isn't that enough?

And isn't the fact that if they decide you are of interest sometime in the future that they can go back and pull years of information on you, a bit extreme?

Think back to the holocaust or the inquisition, etc. How many more people could have been killed if they could have tracked information on boring people?

How many more hidden Jews would have been found and murdered if businesses were electronically tracking purchases over 20+ years and the Nazi government could access it?

How many more people would have been tortured and killed during the inquisition because their electronic information showed a purchase of a "devil worshipping" item or linked them to an internet forum where a known devil worshipper had been posting?

The problem is that "boring" and "uninteresting" is extremely subjective. Just because I am law abiding and boring today, doesn't guarantee I'll be considered law abiding and boring tomorrow.

And we can't guarantee that such horrors like the holocaust won't happen again.

I prefer to fight against such collections of information because it can be used for wrong too easily.

[D_E_Bishop]

When I bought this computer about two years ago(yes I know it is out of date now), there were several folks in a back room of the store that offered to speed up my brand new, unused, and super fast computer abet for a small fee.

How could they do that you ask, simple they removed almost all of the "FREE" software that the manufacturer was paid to install in all their units. The store I bought from does not send me any advertising, they know I'll be back to shop from them and have all the info gathering software removed at least once a year. Cookies are insidious things and it is almost impossible to travel the IH without them.

I am hard of hearing and wear hearing aids, my previous pair took several showers and were in need of replacement, okay I thought new aids with blue tooth connectivity to the telephone system. So I replace the old flip phone with a Samsung J3, the closest phone I could find to an old AT&T 500. After I get my new aids and my new smart phone, I find out no connectivity. COSTCO is in Kirkland, WA and who is next door, right Apple and MS. Kirkland brand aids only connect to iphones. But they don't sell the information they collect every time you use your phone or any compatible device?

You can't get around the info gatherers, just rent a new car for a little trip and the rental agency mines the cars computers for everything you did including where you went and you don't even have to use the cars built in GPS, it records even when you think it's off.

When our DGS graduated from Middle School, he had no use for a computer or a cell phone, now with the influx of hormones and learning about the softness of the females population, he is an addict. Three weeks backpacking, kayaking and canoeing around AK (guys only) and we could tell you where he was almost before he got there. The apps on his phone would download to our computers everytime they got close to a cell tower. One of the Scout leaders carries a sat phone and he has an app that shows on a topo map exactly where they hike or boat. Photos that when his Mom was a teen took five days to get from the film processing plant are now movies(videos) and done in real time.

I have a new smart(?) phone, it's about a week old, I have received one phone call, made two calls and sent one text. I have at least two texts a day from either Samsung or Verizon asking why I don't use my phone and offering upgrades. I have had the same number of contacts I had three years ago when I entered my DGS number. I have "8" numbers. DW cell and our landline, two DDs, two DGKs, and my best friend and only his work phone(he has three cell phones). I have one app that I need and that is it.

My most favorite thing is not responding to any ads on my phone(I no longer get many)the TV, Radio, online or newspaper. Somehow they seem to send me snailmail about things I do want but I won't buy from anyone who sends me an ad I don't request.

I'm plain white bread and don't appear to do much except to RV and occasionally buy something that Buck Rogers carried back when TV screens were round and the picture was green and white in color. The DW however gets close to fifty or sixty catalogs every month and she constantly is looking for stuff. CW has even stopped sending me ads, they send her the ads, she used her card to buy from them, I didn't.

Go low and slow under the radar and you miss most of the crud.

[GordonThree]

RedRocket204 wrote:
My comment was primarily sarcasm... except for the part about the advertising. Unless you're doing crime, I seriously doubt there is much interest in the rest of your lives... again, except for the advertising piece.

I mostly agree, however my concern is how long are they storing everything.

Everything is recorded. Every phone call, email, text message, GPS location, website visit, McDonald's receipt, medical record, etc. How about every security camera appearance cross referenced, along with license plate scanners. All on a server farm somewhere, potentially forever.

Ok, I'll put my tinfoil hat away now.

[GordonThree]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Department of Homeland Security built a facility in the sleepy little lakefront town of Clarkeville Va back in 2010. Huge antenna farm, several new cell towers nearby with no cell carrier working from them. And by the strangest of coincidences, only a year later, Microslop announced a huge new data storage facility being built just 10 miles away.

Lots of antennas, sounds like an ground station. The big one in that area is Roaring Creek, built for the NSA by AT&T. There's so much data the stations quickly get overwhelmed so they're building new ones all the time.

[RedRocket204]

My comment was primarily sarcasm... except for the part about the advertising. Unless you're doing crime, I seriously doubt there is much interest in the rest of your lives... again, except for the advertising piece.

[wanderingaimles]

Department of Homeland Security built a facility in the sleepy little lakefront town of Clarkeville Va back in 2010. Huge antenna farm, several new cell towers nearby with no cell carrier working from them. And by the strangest of coincidences, only a year later, Microslop announced a huge new data storage facility being built just 10 miles away.

[GordonThree]

RedRocket204 wrote:
Can you imagine the size of the building that houses the people who take this data and decide who to spy on? That building must be huge.

E.g. I'm sure I'm really not that interesting other than how to advertise to.

There's several buildings, spread all over the globe. The lines get pretty blurry between the big carriers, major providers and the intelligence 'community' for server farms that collect, store and analyse the information. Without AI the needle would be even harder to find in the haystack.

[RedRocket204]

Can you imagine the size of the building that houses the people who take this data and decide who to spy on? That building must be huge.

E.g. I'm sure I'm really not that interesting other than how to advertise to.

[GordonThree]

I, for one, welcome our artificially intelligent overlords.

[pbitschura]

All of these free services we depend on has a cost to be paid by someone. Marketing pays the bills so the technology works to support that paradygm.

[T18skyguy]

MrWizard wrote:

They need to be badly regulated

i think they are currently 'poorly/badly' regulated

i will rephrase that to what i think you mean

"They are badly in need of regulation !"

LOL Mr Wiz, you got it right.

[MrWizard]

They need to be badly regulated

i think they are currently 'poorly/badly' regulated

i will rephrase that to what i think you mean

"They are badly in need of regulation !"

[T18skyguy]

What they are gradually building around our necks is an electronic noose. It's awful. George Soros called Facebook a "menace to society". I couldn't agree more. Waste your time. Sell your data to criminals. Get constantly harassed from all sides. They need to be badly regulated; that goes for all of them. A.I. will be used against you more than to help you.

[wa8yxm]

There is "Smart" and there is Intelegent. The deffination of Inetelegent is "It can learn" Smart Televisions and such do not learn.. They chat with something (Say Google) and Google's computers learn.

But beyond that I can't say much beyond the old Fidonet tag line

We need artificial intelligence.....we are running out of the natural kind

Oh. I do not have a smart tv. or Fridge. or the "Smart thigns" app on my phone or a google device (The voice operated) or apple or amazon or any voice operated device save perhaps a cat.. he sometimes comes when I call him... if he wants to.

[toedtoes]

It's not about artificial intelligence, it's about the big business of information.

http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=678163901


Unfortunately, this isn't a conspiracy theory. It's reality.