A mere few years ago the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) might be used to analyze and report to law enforcement aberrant human behavior on social media and other online platforms was merely the far out premise of dystopian movies such as Minority Report, but now Facebook proudly brags that it will use AI to "save lives" based on behavior and thought pattern recognition.
What could go wrong?
The latest puff piece in Tech Crunch profiling the apparently innocuous sounding "roll out" of AI (as if a mere modest software update) "to detect suicidal posts before they're reported" opens with the glowingly optimistic line, "This is software to save lives" - so who could possibly doubt such a wonderful and benign initiative which involves AI evaluating people's mental health? Tech Crunch's Josh Cronstine begins:
This is software to save lives. Facebook’s new “proactive detection” artificial intelligence technology will scan all posts for patterns of suicidal thoughts, and when necessary send mental health resources to the user at risk or their friends, or contact local first-responders. By using AI to flag worrisome posts to human moderators instead of waiting for user reports, Facebook can decrease how long it takes to send help.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long hinted that his team has been wrestling with ways to prevent what appears to be a disturbingly increased trend of live streamed suicides as well as the much larger social problem of online bullying and harassment. One recent example which gained international media attention was a bizarre incident out of Turkey, where a distraught father shot himself on Facebook Live after announcing that his daughter was getting married without his permission. Though the example actually demonstrates the endlessly complex and unforeseen variables involved in human decision making and the human psyche - in this case notions of rigid Middle East cultural taboos and stigma clearly played a part - Tech Crunch holds it up as something which AI could possibly prevent.
Earlier this year Zuckerberg wrote in a public post that “There have been terribly tragic events - like suicides, some live streamed - that perhaps could have been prevented if someone had realized what was happening and reported them sooner... Artificial intelligence can help provide a better approach.” And in a post yesterday announcing the new AI suicide prevention tool integration, he wrote that “In the future, AI will be able to understand more of the subtle nuances of language, and will be able to identify different issues beyond suicide as well, including quickly spotting more kinds of bullying and hate.”
Naturally, we must ask: what does Mark mean by the eerily ambiguous reference to "we will be able to identify different issues beyond suicide as well.."?
It begins. Facebook rolls out its first AI powered thought crime module. https://t.co/g0aQB9Odo6
— Julian Assange ???? (@JulianAssange) November 28, 2017
With the debate already long raging about how "bullying and hate" gets interpreted and labelled, and with multiple high profile instances of such accusations being used to censor and limit constitutionally protected speech, Zuckerberg now "reassures" us that we can place such sensitive and highly interpretive questions in the hands of machines. Tech Crunch awkwardly tries to preempt such obvious (and horrifying) concerns while ultimately concluding "we have little choice" but to embrace it and "hope Facebook doesn't go too far":
Just because the current World Shadow Government operates in total secrecy doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The globalist New World Order has actually been here for well over a hundred years.
The practical reality is that the World Shadow Government (WSG) rules over every square inch of planet Earth … to varying degrees, of course. (Russia, for instance, has left the reservation in many ways, but still has to play the game in many ways.)
The bottom line is that the C.I.A. is primarily the enforcement agency for the WSG. It was recently written that the C.I.A. is the “enforcement agency for the Council on Foreign Relations”. And that’s entirely true. However, the C.I.A. is also the enforcement agency for every other entity within Deep State, both public and private, covert and overt.
Only with this correct understanding can the true magnitude of humanity’s problematic predicament be comprehended. Essentially, a thoroughly rogue intelligence agency — the largest in the world — has taken control of every sphere of life. In fact, the C.I.A. acts with absolute impunity, whenever and wherever it so chooses to. As follows:
Certain folks won’t be happy until everyone has a computer chip implanted in them. Here’s how this could go.
- Initially, it would be the sheep who blindly desire to be chipped for their own “convenience” leading the way.
- Then, it would become remarkably inconvenient not to be chipped – sort of like it’s nearly impossible to not have a bank account these days.
- Then, the last holdouts could be forcibly chipped by law.
Read on, because I could not make this stuff up.
Some employers are chipping workers.
Last summer, the internet was abuzz about a company in Wisconsin that wanted to microchip their employees. Workers at the technology company, Three Market Square, were given the option of having a chip implanted in their hands and 50 out of 80 eagerly lined up for the privilege.
Why? So they could buy food or swipe their way through building security with a wave of their hand.
What could pass for a dystopian vision of the workplace is almost routine at the Swedish start-up hub Epicenter. The company offers to implant its workers and start-up members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.
“The biggest benefit, I think, is convenience,” said Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and chief executive of Epicenter. As a demonstration, he unlocks a door merely by waving near it. “It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys.” (source)
Pretty soon, experts say everyone will want to be microchipped.
Many sources say that it’s inevitable that we’re all going to get chipped. Noelle Chesley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, says it’s inevitable.
Another pro-chipping advocate, Gene Munster, an investor and analyst at Loup Ventures, says that we just have to get past that silly social stigma and then everyone will be doing it within 50 years. Why? Oh, the benefits.
The company, which sells corporate cafeteria kiosks designed to replace vending machines, would like the kiosks to handle cashless transactions.This would go beyond paying with your smartphone. Instead, chipped customers would simply wave their hands in lieu of Apple Pay and other mobile-payment systems.The benefits don’t stop there. In the future, consumers could zip through airport scanners sans passport or drivers license; open doors; start cars; and operate home automation systems. All of it, if the technology pans out, with the simple wave of a hand. (source)
There are some serious pitfalls
While the current chips being “installed” in humans are said not to have GPS tracking, don’t you figure it’s just a matter of time? And also, how do you KNOW that there is no GPS tracking technology in that teeny little chip? Just because they tell you so?
Then there is the issue of the chip in your body being hacked.
“This is serious stuff. We’re talking about a nonstop potential connection to my body and I can’t turn it off, I can’t put it away, it’s in me. That’s a big problem,” said Ian Sherr, an executive editor at CNET.“It’s very easy to hack a chip implant, so my advice is don’t put your life secrets on an implant, Sjöblad said…“It’s about educating the people and giving every person the tools…not only how to use the technology but, more importantly, when it’s being used against you,” Sjöblad warned. (source)
Microchips may not be optional one day.
This horror movie gets even scarier. There is already a law on the books that potentially allows human beings to be forcibly chipped.
Oh, it’s couched in warm, fuzzy language and they say it’s just to help keep track of folks with Alzheimer’s or other developmental disabilities, but remember that the most unpatriotic law ever passed was also called the Patriot Act.
It directs the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to award competitive grants to health care, law enforcement, or public safety agencies, and nonprofit organizations, to develop or operate locally based proactive programs to prevent wandering and locate missing individuals with dementia or children with developmental disabilities. The BJA must give preference to law enforcement or public safety agencies partnering with nonprofit organizations that use person-centered plans and are directly linked to individuals, and families of individuals, with dementia or developmental disabilities. (source)
Despite the fact that the bill requires everyone to use privacy “best practices,” it’s not that much of a stretch to see what a slippery slope this is. Who gets to decide whether a person “needs” to be chipped for their own good? Law enforcement. Scary.
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