The Limits of Technology Within Media Outlets
When discussing how much our society has grown, one of the main things that come to mind is technology. Our knowledge about technology has grown immensely within the short timeframe of actually having and using it in our society. We have been able to create self-driving cars, mobile smartphones, and AI’s that are able to write a paper for you about anything. With this in mind, there are still a countless number of unknowns about the limits of technology and how much more there is to learn about how powerful technology is able to be.
Watching a Ted Talk by James Bridle, he discussed the concepts around media platforms as he used YouTube as the example media outlet. His arguments and points were based across all media outlets not just bashing on YouTube as a company. His ted talk, “The nightmare videos of children’s YouTube”, uncovered the unlighted and non-talked about situation that is developing between YouTube and our youth. I believe after watching his ted talk, he has very powerful and truthful ideas about technology and social media. What sparked my interest the most was his discussion on ai and machine learning within YouTube. When we think of algorithms within YouTube, we think about how after clicking on a video, YouTube will start to suggest videos that relate. But, the truth behind these algorithms is much more complex than that. In Bridle’s words he states “Well, machine learning, as any expert in it will tell you, is basically what we’ve started to call software that we don’t really understand how it works” (Bridle 11:15). Our knowledge about ai and machine learning is advancing every day. But I like to compare these software’s to the ocean. A majority of it is undiscovered territory and we have only theories about what it could be. YouTube like most media outlets uses ai and machine learning algorithms to help run the site. In particular and the case of Bridle’s arguments, using software we know little about to run our media outlets is not beneficial. Bridle uses the example of censorship speaking about how young children can go from a playful cartoon to an inappropriate video based on people, bots, and trolls using similar keywords that the algorithm follows. So why would we use ai and machine learning to be the police of media content on these platforms when it has shown to cause harm? Well for starters, using these algorithms allow humans to do less work. In other words, people see the software’s as being more efficient which in a way they are, but they aren’t always acting how we would want them to. Bridle ends his ted talk by stating that technology should be used to help us find the questions we should be discussing rather than being a solution to all our problems.
Personally, I believe technology, ai, and machine learning are some of our greatest advancements in our history. The ability to create software’s to complete tasks for us rather than doing them by hand was unimaginable in the past. The problem is not knowing the limits of these software’s. Like the ocean, there is much to be discovered. So why do we believe with the little knowledge we have that this is the solution to all our problems? I think that in the future yes it will continue to help us become more efficient and benefit us in many ways. But, with knowing so little about this technology, it is important we don’t give complete responsibility to these software’s as we are still in the early stage of understanding these technologies.
Works Cited
Bridle, James. “The Nightmare Videos of Children’s YouTube — and What’s Wrong with the Internet Today.” James Bridle: The Nightmare Videos of Children’s YouTube — and What’s Wrong with the Internet Today | TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/james_bridle_the_nightmare_videos_of_children_s_youtube_and_what_s_wrong_with_the_internet_today/transcript.
