Blog Post #10 Living in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence is one of the newest advancements in technology. It is the closest human-to-technology connection and morphing of the two we have to date. 

The purpose of artificial intelligence is to teach a computer to function as a person. These machines learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. Some A.I. examples we have are self-driving cars, Face IDs, and computers that play chess on their own. While we give these devices minds of their own, this could be positive and negative. The eyeballs of computers have become more expansive and the ears of devices are now listening to us closer. Our feeds have become more and more curated to our preferences through the use of technology's access to our personal information and social media accounts. Our phones track everything that we do from our search history to our social media likes to our virtual shopping carts. This can lead to security breaches, however, and people are becoming increasingly worried about their safety and privacy. Computers are trying to serve us better and it can be great to have the world adapt to us, but people with our information don’t always have the same goals as us. 

Companies that track our content do so to curate our feed so it benefits them. They want to know who would be interested in their product and who it does not apply. This gives them an idea of who their target audience is as well as how wide their audience is. "We aren't using social media, social media is using us." This is a quote from the video we watched because it shows how through A.I. roles are reversed between the human and computer relationship. Because of this privacy invasion, the private human experience is raw material turned to fabrication. The oversharing and trust people put into their cell phones will be their downfall. Another quote from the video states, “...you would be horrified if you knew how much we knew about you.” 

Positives to A.I. would be a world in which everything we need is at our fingertips. We would hardly need to search for something to shop for before it showed up at our doorstep. Though this takes the human experience out of living life, we can see a slow merge of humans and technology each and every day. The world of A.I. is convenient yet tricky, so it is critical that we protect our information from the government, businesses, and hackers to maintain a boundary of privacy in modern day tech. 

Blog Post #11 EOTO Reactions

 

    In the spirit of exploring the world of Machine Learning and A.I., I decided to write my reflection on Ryan Shapiro's EOTO presentation and talk about what I learned.

    How did this come to be the machine learning and A.I. we know of today? Back in the mid-1900s, software was developing in minor ways to create big futures for computers. It started out as being used as a scoring program for games of checkers, next it developed image recognition, and later was used for mapping routes. In the late 1960s, multilayering technology allowed for future neural network research. 

    To begin, there is a clear difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence. Machine learning is HOW a computer develops its intelligence, while A.I. uses software to think like a human and perform tasks without the help of humans. It is almost like different parts of a brain; machine learning is the process while A.I. is the performance.

    Machine learning is a software program that uses the momentum of algorithms and statistics to motivate its understanding of data. In order for it to be considered true machine learning, there is no human involvement in the process. The idea as a whole is to train computers to think and function the way humans would without the assistance of a person to interfere.

What is the process of machine learning?

    First, the computer Identifies relevant data sets and prepares them for analysis. Then, Chooses the type of machine learning algorithm to use. Next, it builds an analytical model based on the chosen algorithm. It further trains the model on test data sets, revising it as needed. Lastly, it runs the model to generate scores and other findings. 

Blog Post #9 EOTO Terms & Concepts

    

     Not only do new technologies transform our world, but new business concepts and marketing strategies do as well. As our society is everchanging, companies need to keep up with competition and the desires that come with consumer culture. 

    Most businesses thrive off of horizontal integration- which involves one company buying another company within the same value chain level to increase its market share. Buying out the competition not only creates a larger company but, increases market power among suppliers and distributors, and opens up new markets for the company. These businesses have to stitch together similar companies, maintaining cohesion as the company expands and by sharing revenue with distributors and suppliers that aid them. On the other hand, a strategy that is emerging more and more is vertical integration.

                                            

What is Vertical Integration?

    Vertical integration is when a company handles two or more stages of production, normally operated by separate companies, themselves.  This could include handling suppliers, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and materials. A company that practices vertical integration would be Disney; they own Disney Channel, Disney World, Disneyland, Disney+, and more. They film, hire, distribute, and market all of their own content across the board. This idea of a “self-sufficient” company was developed during the Industrial Revolution and was greatly inspired by Andrew Carnegie. His company, Carnegie Steel, controlled the iron mines that were used for mining steel resources, the coal mines that provided the fuel to create the steel, the railroads for transporting materials, and the steel mills themselves. The idea has continued today and has many positives and negatives to its structure.

Types of Vertical Integration

    There are three different kinds of vertical integration: forward, backward, and balanced. Forward integration is when a company in the supply chain merges with a distribution channel and cuts out the middleman. Backward integration is considered an upstream business move. It involves a parent company expanding backward by purchasing and controlling earlier stages of the supply chain. Backward integration allows them to control the raw materials needed to create the final product. Balanced integration is a mixture of both business strategies.

    Vertical integration is now practiced in companies like Disney, IKEA, and Amazon, so there must be lots that are right about it. Here are some of the positives of vertical integration. A vertically integrated company owns all or several parts of the supply chain, and they become independent from its suppliers. This integration allows the company to increase efficiencies, lower costs, and compete with other companies by offering cheaper or more consistent products. By reducing costs on overhead, transportation, and other operational expenses, companies are often able to offer lower prices that attract customers. Vertical integration also allows for competitive advantage through creative appeal. If a company has control over its own marketing and distribution, it can make any changes they want without any pushback. By controlling its own supply chain, it is more able to control and deal with any supply problems itself instead of working upstream. This allows for a much more swift working process. Keeping revenues is another positive of vertical integration because there is no need to share with distributors or argue about splitting income.

 

Positives and Negatives

    With positives always come negatives. There are also many reasons why companies choose to not practice vertical integration. The main reason is that vertical integration is a recipe for a monopoly. Because one company can control so much and hold so much power, it gives them the ability to abuse that power by freely increasing their prices and making any changes they want without pushback. When there is no other company like theirs and they beat the competition, it leaves consumers with no choice but to abide by their changes and pay the extra cost. It is also not so easy to start a vertically integrated company. The initial expense is outrageous; companies must first invest a great deal of money to set up or buy factories. Then they must then keep the plants running to maintain efficiency and profits. Lots of times if a plan is not clear or a company does not have a strict set of standards, miscommunication can lead to the failure of the company before it has even launched. Rapidly changing technology is also a negative for vertical integration because they do not have partnering companies to help them adapt or to assist with costs and partnerships. Even with these obstacles, some of the most successful companies still find success through these tribulations.

    If you want to learn more about vertical integration, here is a list of well-known companies that use this strategy:

https://boycewire.com/vertical-integration-definition/

Blog Post #8 Privacy, Online & Off

                    

   

     Privacy is hard to come by these days. There is no more knocking on someone's door to surprise them- they saw you on the Ring camera 100 feet before you approached the door. You can no longer talk privately with your best friend about her breakup without Alexa suggesting the cheapest ice cream options nearby. I cannot go to a party anymore without waking up the next day and finding myself in the background of dozens of photos posted on the internet, looking regrettable. And don't even think about holding a secret because soon enough, the super sleuths of the internet will piece together information about you from the past six months to conclude that you are now working with the Illuminati. Too much?

    Lack of privacy due to the newest technologies can help and hurt us. It is helpful because I can share my location with my friends and family so they can always find me in case I am in danger. It is also helpful to know what is going on in the lives of people you know- since it is all exposed. But the negatives outweigh the positives. By inserting your phone number to register your email address, people can now contact you that you never knew. By letting Google track your location, hackers can find where you are. Having a teddy bear that monitors your children with a built-in camera can be their recipe for kidnapping my creepy coders. I think we can do more to protect ourselves from these privacy invasions. We tend to trust our resources too much- by inserting our email addresses to a new website just because we were asked to. Well, what else is linked to that email? My credit card information, my contacts, my phone number, my location, etc. People need to realize just how much they are giving away. By doing these small acts that seem harmless just to get a coupon code or become a member of Sam's Club, we are exposing parts of our lives that should be more private.

                                                                               

    I think the government should be doing a better job of protecting its citizen's privacy rather than invading it with incessant questions and numbers designed for each person. Although lack of privacy is good for tracking criminals, it is not good visa versa. It is becoming far too simple to find someone you want to find. For example, I ran the track team in high school and there were lots of boys from neighboring schools that my teammates found attractive. After all, who doesn't love an athlete? All I needed to find their future husband was the name of their school. Then, I'd search for the roster of the track team and match the photo to the person. I did not need a name or number. Once I found their photo, their complete athletic history was posted along with their name. We used the name to find the social media accounts and the rest was history. Going up to him and introducing ourselves? No thanks. This lack of privacy worked in our favor, but maybe not in his.

    So what can we do to better protect ourselves from being tracked and attacked by advertisements and internet weirdos? For starters, we can create fake accounts under mysterious names when registering for memberships. We can also clear our search histories, turn our locations off, and unsubscribe from old subscriptions with old information. We can also never have credit card information or passwords pre-saved to devices to make our lives "easier." It won't be so easy once we get hacked! 

Blog Post #7 Diffusion of Innovations

                                                 

    Trends, innovations, and ideas spread like wildfire through a population through the Diffusion Theory. The type of population that tends to have the speediest growth in terms of new trends and transformations would be the youth. Social media, schools, and universities are breeding grounds for trends and news to spread and what is deemed "cool" or not. Growing up in the early to mid 2000s, I have seen such growth with technology and social media over time. An innovation that caught on instantly and spread like wildfire would be the app Snapchat. Although writing about a social media app is cliche, this particular app seems like a good choice for me to write about because I grew up watching its growth and societal effect. 

    Snapchat is a social media and communication app where people can send momentary messages and create 24 hour long posts that delete when their time limit is up. It is not only a way to keep your peers updated about what you're doing in the moment, but allows for quick conversation hat doesn't take up storage for saving the thread. Back in 2011 when Snapchat was invented, photos could only be viewed once for ten seconds each. There was no saving, replaying, or sharing other people's content. It was a witty way to say "here I am right now."

                                                  (old snapchat logo)

    People took to Snapchat as soon as it was released and was primarily used by high school students for intimate reasons. I remember my sister did not let me download it because the app wasn't so much social as it was a secret way to communicate with no strings attached. People took it less seriously than competitor apps like Instagram because there is no trace left behind of what was posted or shared- whether it be embarrassing, funny, serious, or sad. People had no shame in what they posted because they knew it would disappear, therefore, it was also unfortunately used for cyberbullying as well. As time went on, Snapchat added more features to its app making it more attractive to other age groups. Filters, sound effects, speed up/slown down/reverse options for videos, location sharing, and streaks were all updates made by 2015, and by 2016, Snapchat had over 75 million users. Now, Snapchat has ways to watch the news, monitor celebrities, contact friends, and so much more. 

    So what made Snapchat so attractive? The text/ photo or video combination was a new form of communication. People could see and hear your face or where you were while reading the caption you put over it all at the same time. Rather then having a social media post that is overly edited, Snapchat is a more honest and organic way to reach friends. People now use Snapchat to text and call people instead of imessage or SMS text message them because they can do so without service- only WiFi is needed. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Afterall, Snapchat is a free way to communicate and you do not have to pay for minutes used. There are negatives, however. Because Snapchat deletes chats and photos almost instantly and forever, people in relationships fear the app is a way their partner can practice infedelity since they cannot prove who was texted or not. The disappearing photos and call history means anyone can send anything they so choose at any time. Just like any other social media, it is also used for people to try and prove they have a life by posting "interesting" or "fun" things they could be doing that makes their friends feel left out. Looking at distorted and heavily filtered images can also affect people by promoting insecurities and a fake lifestyle. Still, people find it to be one of the less toxic social media apps and continue to use it daily. 

    This technology was adopted because back in 2011 there was a very limited amount of social media usage. Apps like Instagram and Twitter were just emerging, and we were all learning together the new ways to connect when we were apart. I love Snapchat and still use it to this day- with my location off of course. You can also control who can view and who cannot view your content and who is in your strict friends list. I believe Diffusion Theory worked well with Snapchat because of its rapid growth and continued popularity over the past ten years.