Big tech companies like Google owning data and having no rivals or regulations to check them
Tech Monopolies (27)
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- 5 min
- Citylab
- 2019
Currently, the idea of “smart cities” are so theoretical and predicated on the idea of “technochauvinism” that they mostly exist in images which sell the ideas of ever-advancing technology and application of futuristic technologies to urban centers as a cash cow waiting to be milked.
- Citylab
- 2019
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- 5 min
- Citylab
- 2019
The 3 Pictures That Explain Everything About Smart Cities
Currently, the idea of “smart cities” are so theoretical and predicated on the idea of “technochauvinism” that they mostly exist in images which sell the ideas of ever-advancing technology and application of futuristic technologies to urban centers as a cash cow waiting to be milked.
Discussion Prompts:
What is a smart city, at least in theory? What might be left out of the phenomenon (urban life) that smart cities attempt to abstract in the creation of a smart city? What priorities come with envisioning a smart city, and who is or should be in control of this?
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- 5 min
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
During Google’s attempt to merge with the company Fitbit, the NGO Amnesty International has provided warnings to the competition regulators in the EU that such a move would be detrimental to privacy. Based on Google’s historical malpractice with user data, since its status as a tech monopoly allows it to mine data from several different avenues of a user’s life, adding wearable health-based tech to this equation puts the privacy and rights of users at risk. Calls for scrunity of “surveillance capitalism” employed by tech giants.
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
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- 5 min
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
No Google-Fitbit merger without human rights remedies, says Amnesty to EU
During Google’s attempt to merge with the company Fitbit, the NGO Amnesty International has provided warnings to the competition regulators in the EU that such a move would be detrimental to privacy. Based on Google’s historical malpractice with user data, since its status as a tech monopoly allows it to mine data from several different avenues of a user’s life, adding wearable health-based tech to this equation puts the privacy and rights of users at risk. Calls for scrunity of “surveillance capitalism” employed by tech giants.
Discussion Prompts:
When considering how companies and advertisers may use them, what sorts of personal statistics related to health and well-being should and should not be collected by mobile computing devices? How can devices originally built to stand on their own as one technological artifact become more convenient or harmful to a user when they become part of a technological architecture?
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- 7 min
- VentureBeat
- 2021
The GPT-3 Natural Language Processing model, created by the company open AI and released in 2020, is the most powerful of its kind, using a generalized approach to feed its machine learning algorithm in order to mirror human speech. The potential applications of such a powerful program are manifold, but this potential means that many tech monopolies may want to enter an “arms race” to get the most powerful model possible.
- VentureBeat
- 2021
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- 7 min
- VentureBeat
- 2021
GPT-3: We’re at the very beginning of a new app ecosystem
The GPT-3 Natural Language Processing model, created by the company open AI and released in 2020, is the most powerful of its kind, using a generalized approach to feed its machine learning algorithm in order to mirror human speech. The potential applications of such a powerful program are manifold, but this potential means that many tech monopolies may want to enter an “arms race” to get the most powerful model possible.
Discussion Prompts:
Should AI be able to imitate human speech unchecked? Should humans be trained to be able to tell when speech or text might be produced by a machine? How might Natural Language Processing cheapen human writing and writing jobs?
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- 7 min
- Wall Street Journal
- 2021
Google’s new Pixel 6 smartphone claims to have “the world’s most inclusive camera” based on its purported ability to more accurately reflect darker skin tones in photographs, a form of digital justice notably absent from previous iterations of computational photography across the phones of various tech monopolies.
- Wall Street Journal
- 2021
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- 7 min
- Wall Street Journal
- 2021
Google Built the Pixel 6 Camera to Better Portray People With Darker Skin Tones. Does It?
Google’s new Pixel 6 smartphone claims to have “the world’s most inclusive camera” based on its purported ability to more accurately reflect darker skin tones in photographs, a form of digital justice notably absent from previous iterations of computational photography across the phones of various tech monopolies.
Discussion Prompts:
How can “arms races” between different tech monopolies potentially lead to positive innovations, especially those that center equity? Why did it take so long to have a more inclusive camera? How can a camera be exclusive?
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- 5 min
- Inc
- 2021
On International Data Privacy Day, Apple CEO Tim Cook fired shots against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s model of mining user data through platform analytics and web mining to serve up targeted ads to users. By contrast, Cook painted Apple as a privacy oriented company who wants to make technology work for its users by not collecting their data and manipulating them psychologically through advertising.
- Inc
- 2021
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- 5 min
- Inc
- 2021
Tim Cook May Have Just Ended Facebook
On International Data Privacy Day, Apple CEO Tim Cook fired shots against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s model of mining user data through platform analytics and web mining to serve up targeted ads to users. By contrast, Cook painted Apple as a privacy oriented company who wants to make technology work for its users by not collecting their data and manipulating them psychologically through advertising.
Discussion Prompts:
Are you convinced that Apple has a better business model than Facebook? Should users be responsible for taking steps to protect themselves against web mining, or should Facebook be responsible for adding in more guardrails? What are the consequences of both Facebook and Apple products being involved in larger architectures that extend beyond the singular digital artifact?
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- 6 min
- CBS News
- 2021
In light of the recent allegations of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that the platform irresponsibly breeds division and mental health issues, AI Specialist Karen Hao explains how Facebook’s “algorithm(s)” serve or fail the people who use them. Specifically, the profit motive and a lack of exact and comprehensive knowledge of the algorithm system prevents groundbreaking change from being made.
- CBS News
- 2021
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- 6 min
- CBS News
- 2021
Facebook algorithm called into question after whistleblower testimony calls it dangerous
In light of the recent allegations of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that the platform irresponsibly breeds division and mental health issues, AI Specialist Karen Hao explains how Facebook’s “algorithm(s)” serve or fail the people who use them. Specifically, the profit motive and a lack of exact and comprehensive knowledge of the algorithm system prevents groundbreaking change from being made.
Discussion Prompts:
Do programmers and other technological minds have a responsibility to understand exactly how algorithms work and how they tag data? What are specific consequences to algorithms which use their own criteria to tag items? How do social media networks take advantage of human attention?
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