In today’s world of the internet, social media, and various streaming platforms, our daily lives have fully submitted to technology. It’s not been too long ago that we were introduced to the internet, and today, most if not all of us are using it every day.
Recently, there have been a lot of AI trends and challenges going viral, where the user needs to upload a photo on ChatGPT to get a modified and edited photo. They share these photos on social media for the sole purpose of “fun.” However, the aftermath of that one picture is more than one can imagine.
To talk about the effects of using AI will be a long conversation with plenty of controversial and political agendas. With increased use of AI, we, as its users, are only providing more data to the big tech companies like Google and Meta who benefit with every click, every upload, and every engagement by collecting our personal information.
The individuals in authority of these personal data ultimately are invading people’s privacy and dehumanizing them by abusing their power. The collected data could be nothing but just the age of the user or their gender, but there are multiple ways this information is misused.
We know that there are various facial recognition machines being used for every sector. The data collected through these machines are processed to develop generative AI along with making weapons.
Another thing that helps AI and its function is algorithms. We know the word algorithm as something that helps curate our social media pages. Every ‘like’, ‘share’, or any engagement done on social media helps create data which the algorithm picks up as the user's information.
Each unique page is the result of an algorithm after understanding the user's interests through collected data. But algorithms do not only work on social media but rather, work beyond just our social media explore pages.
Every piece of information forms a code that AI tools read and gather in their system. The use of AI or any other technology is not as simple as we think.
Advanced technologies were invented with the purpose of making everyone’s daily work a bit easier. But it is important that as users, we educate ourselves with its uses, functions, and effects.
When these technologies are marketed, they are presented as tools to make our lives easier. Yet, we are never given a manual on how to use it. Furthermore, we are unaware of what they are doing after collecting our personal information.
Many use generative AI for help when they are stuck with work. Students, corporate workers, even people working in creative sectors use generative AI for their daily tasks.
But running to ChatGPT for every single task is not only dangerous, it is also damaging our ability to think creatively.
Looking back at the history of ChatGPT trends, the first one that became viral and concerning was transforming personal photos into “Ghibli style” images. People were paying for ChatGPT subscriptions only to edit their picture to look like a scene from aGhibli movie.
This was very disappointing for the artists, animators, illustrators, and every other individual who sometimes worked for months just to draw a frame of these movies.
The Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki expressed his disappointment, talking about how this is disrespectful to everyone working in the animation industry.
Looking at the situation now, it seems like we as a society are not educated enough to understand how much our actions are damaging our future with our AI usage.
We need to comprehend that the use of generative AI, which people use only for “fun,” has negative effects beyond what we often imagine. It is simultaneously damaging the ecological balance of the climate and harming every living being on this planet.
People should be more conscious and aware of every action, and ask questions about whether we are harming anyone or not. With our daily lives being so dependent on online platforms and services, we should not be jumping into participating in any viral trend.
It is unavoidable to use advanced technologies. However, it should not come at the expense of our ability to imagine and create.
We should always remember that AI or any technological tools are made by humans. It is us humans who program them for our use. We should not let technology take over our lives.
Let us all as a society become more aware of the functions and effects of AI, or any advanced technologies before blindly using them. The increased use of advanced technologies is not the solution to all our problems. Rather, it could be inviting the end of everything sooner than we can imagine.
Nushin Tarannum Lamia is a graduate student of Communication Culture and Media at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.
