Blog #10

I enjoyed all the presentations and found them to be really enlightening as I had not heard of a lot of the terms before. One of the topics that I found really interesting was whistleblowers. A whistleblower is an individual who reveals classified information usually exposing misconduct. Whistleblowers risk retaliation from the company or organization exposed. One of the most famous whistleblowers is Edward Snowden. While working for the NSA, he revealed secrets including the existence of a program called PRISM which allows the NSA to see customer details from various internet companies. After revealing this information he flew to Russia where he still remains to escape being thrown in jail in the US.

One of the other presentations I found interesting was the term echo chamber. This is when someone is only surrounded by information that mirrors what they already believe. This can be a problem as it can increase political polarization and make it hard for people to understand opposing beliefs. They are also encouraged by 

confirmation bias which is the tendency to favor information that confirms already existing beliefs. Constant access to social media and the internet has made it increasingly easier to fall into echo chambers.

Lastly, the presentation on artificial intelligence stuck out to me because we have talked about it in class but also because it is a growing problem in society. It was described as using computers to understand human intelligence. AI can be positive and negative depending on how it is used. One of the worries of AI is that it will reinforce discrimination. The data that AI uses is often discriminatory against different groups. One of the other concerns of AI is that it will take over jobs. This has already started happening to some degree with a lot going online. If used properly, artificial intelligence can be helpful, but if not, it can do more harm than good. The consequences of AI should be heavily weighed before continuing to advance.