Smart technology is becoming more interesting each year. It is cool. It is trendy. More people are realizing that smart technology enhances our quality of life.
With Google Maps, it is almost impossible to get lost. With facial recognition, we may have the best way to lock and unlock our properties. There are a lot of value in these things, but there is a price that we pay for them. Even if the app is free, we are paying a price. We may pay in losing the privacy of our biometric data or details about our daily activities.
In July 2018, the London Metropolitan Police created controversy about their use of facial recognition technology for public safety. Unfortunately, that is not all.
With the rising use of smart devices, we do not realize how we give away another form of our personal data: our speech. You may wonder why it is important. Well, AI assistants may be smart in understanding humans, but their limited knowledge can cause them to exercise prejudice.
Scientific experiments show that they are only correct in 60% of cases when detecting the voices of gay men. In another study, machines were right in 70% of cases when detecting sexual orientation from facial images.
Why does it matter if a person is gay or not? Why does it matter if the person is Latino or Asian? I believe that it should not matter, but big technology companies disagree.
Google Translate associates doctors with men and nurses with women based on Turkey’s gender bias in medical jobs. Is that right or is that wrong? Perhaps, Google is just mirroring the current reality.
In contrast, there are elements of smart technology that benefits its users. In addition, such elements don’t care about gender, sexual orientation, or race because these features have a sole function.
For example, smart building technology enables the lights to come on when a person enters the room. It also modifies the room temperature based on past settings. Within time, we will enjoy more conveniences from smart technology.
What is a one way that you benefit from smart technology? Please tell us in the comments.
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