Today I would like to talk to you about what is going to happen in next few years and direction world is going to go. To start off with quantum computers will arrive. With INTEL submitting their first 16 qubit chip to research lab in Europe a few weeks ago from time of this writing, technology is near. Quantum chips won’t replace traditional chips think of them more like an add-on like a graphics card. Example: people use graphics card for artificial intelligence as they are faster than normal CPU’s so instead people use GPU’s and when quantum computers arrive they will use quantum instead. There are still difficulties in technology with it requiring a set temperature to operate efficiently when they can overcome that, then perhaps we can have a 50 qubit chip, at 50 qubits it could finally challenge traditional chips. Although places like D-Wave etc have 2000 qubit implementations, they are WAY to big for a normal user!
Quantum computers when they arrive will pose a lot of new challenges with technology today. First of lets talk about the pros: encryption will be better, medical research will be way better, artificial intelligence will be able to take on tasks they could not before, number crunching and data prediction in general will be faster and more feasible, your toilet will speak to you letting you know how to change your diet before you get a disease! The cons: where there is power it is always abused: while we submit our DNA to health agencies, governments will steal that for their own purposes, stock markets will collapse till code on exchanges are rewritten to delay buying and selling of stocks to create fair market advantage again, big companies like Facebook and Google will control AI for the most part and that will starve off competition. To create fair competition for AI, all researchers need all the data google and Facebook have to train programs.
Protecting yourself in a quantum world. When browsing the internet whenever possible use the Tor Browser. This will protect you against Google etc being able to record everything you search for. Artificial intelligence exists for image recognition, speech recognition, tone recognition, and a lot of difference technologies. In the future to protect yourself against them using AI against you, never put a picture of yourself on any of these sites. After all we have no problems in them detecting images of cats and what not, but having a camera on street one day be able to recognize you because you uploaded your picture to Facebook or Google is not a good idea. Currently image recognition is only good at detecting for about 10 years because of the aging process, this is why drivers license wants a new photo before that, typically every 5 years. Technology with GPS has advanced to pinpoint you very accurately with smart phones. Companies like Google etc can trace you by everywhere you bring your smartphone, in fact they have made it so you cannot pull battery out anymore on all recent phones, just shutting the phone off is not enough. One solution is to install Fake GPS app so you can always appear from Christmas Island and only disable it when you need it. Another issue is credit card companies showing all your purchases, embrace crypto-currencies for their anonymity. After all the purpose in crypto-currencies is to put these credit card companies out of business in first place as they having been ripping off businesses for years with transaction fees and passing on the cost to you, its time you fought back against them as well to keep more money in your pocket. While its not possible to remain completely anonymous, ie: your drivers license and passport pictures, doing your best to protect your privacy beyond that is left as an exercise to the reader.
Enhancing AI the safe way is easier said than done. One solution would be for example to create a free dating website for people where they can remain anonymous with their real names, however researchers could pull all characteristic data into their AI programs for training. Social media site the same thing, allow people to remain anonymous. Facebook unfortunately if not knowing your real name will go behind your back and ask friends on your list for real identifiable information, so your not safe period associating your pictures with this company, also history has shown them in bed with the NSA. Essentially what Facebook is is a FBI database for the public and your just adding to it for them. So keep posts away from things like what you go to everyday, or to much of your likes or dislikes, remain neutral on everything by not clicking like on anything. Another solution could be opening an account where noone knows you originally under your real identity and keep family and friends to other apps that don’t invade your privacy and use encryption with a respected trustable company. Facebook info on you is viewable on you by anyone in position of authority with or without your consent, they have backdoors to the system to view anyone, keep this in mind especially when crossing borders.
AI research after all is about things like taking someones foot size and matching it with another characteristic to say determine if person is male or female. Never should it reach a point of knowing real names and addresses of people, this is a safety concern and a privacy concern everyone should be fighting against. When people say they don’t fear surveillance because they have nothing to hide, Edward Snowden says he tells them: “Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like arguing that you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” Words of wisdom.
Also the legal system is flawed in general, all it takes is hearsay to put anybody away without any scientific evidence. All it takes is a few people to collaborate their stories on a lie about someone at a trial to put innocent people away. You can see why you should fight for your privacy, less info people have on you, less believable people will be.
Until next time,
SunSaturn