Age of AI

The age of AI is a fascinating one. I’m sure no one thought this would ever be possible hundreds of years ago, but here we are. After watching the video, I realized AI can be very dangerous if put into the wrong hands. While I do think parts of the video were a bit exaggerated, like I don’t think AI robots are going to take every single job away and take over the human race. I do think they will take SOME jobs. But over time I think the jobs humans will do will change, there won’t be a need to be a cashier at a supermarket for example, but there will need to be more jobs based in technology. Of course it will make things more complicated. I think people are expecting AI to take over the world tomorrow and we won’t know how to handle it. That is the energy the video has. And I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think it will be a gradual change, and soon enough it will become a seamless part of our society. It is just another technology like a phone or computer. While yes it can have negative effects on some things, like deep fakes, and worse case scenario, if countries start using it to attack another country. But I don’t think it is all doom and gloom like some people think. The video showcases some positive uses of AI as well. Like the small things like unlocking your phone with your face, and yes chat GPT. Everyone is so focused on the scary and negative sides of something like chat GPT and don’t focus on the good parts of it. The fact that we have something that could write an assignment or whatever you’d want is kind of amazing when you step back and really think about it. Yeah there is always a chance AI could become really dangerous but I don’t think it has enough power to wipe out the human race. (As of now…) 

EOTO 2 Reaction

The group I found most interesting was the group who had different theories. I did not know what most of their terms were prior to listening. One term I found interesting was “gatekeeping”. Before listening to the presentation on it, I really only ever thought about the ‘social media’ definition of the word. I really thought it was just social media slang and it didn’t have any political context. The term is actually much more complex than what I originally thought. Another term I learned about that I found fascinating was Illusory Truth Effect. I have heard of the definition of this term but I did not know what the exact meaning was. Also how it differed from confirmation bias. This is a term I am way more familiar with. The two can go hand in hand. After you hear something enough times, you will want to search for things to corroborate the ideas learned through the Illusory Truth Effect. Lastly, unlike the previous terms I mentioned, this one I had no idea about. Overton Window was something I heard for the first time when listening to their presentation. This term is pretty relevant in today’s political climate. Everyone has different things they have inside their own “window”. It seems that everyone is trying to reduce the Overton Window nowadays with the amount of laws that are being passed that undo previous laws. Overall I think this team did a very good job explaining their concepts. And everyone had examples of their topics that made it easy to understand what their presentation was about. Especially since I did not know what some of the topics were prior to listening to their presentation. 

False Flag

 A false flag is an operation done by government officials of one country to put the blame of an attack on another country. With the goal of harming another nation without taking the blame for it. There have been countless examples of false flags throughout history. But the term itself originated in the 16th century to describe how pirates would wave the flag of a different nation to deceive merchants, therefore making the merchants believe they were selling their products to a nation they were on good terms with. The term has evolved over time, now it is used for when one nation wants to declare war on another. To pull this off, they will use an attack that takes place in their homeland as means to attack the nation of their choosing. One of the earliest examples of this newly evolved false flag took place in 1898 when the Hearst newspaper placed the blame on Spain for the explosion that sank Havana harbor, an explosion that killed over 200 U.S. soldiers. They did this to incite war with Spain. The real cause for the explosion is unknown, some claim the explosion was from inside the U.S. ship, others will claim Spain set the trap. This is an instance of the U.S. using a false flag to incite war with Spain.

While the United States has countless examples of false flags throughout history, many other countries have used them to get the upper hand in situations as well. German soldiers used a false flag to invade Poland in 1939. They did not use a direct approach with explosives like the previous example. They used the more subtle approach of dressing as Polish soldiers to ambush them from the inside. They stormed their own radio tower, one that was on the border of Germany and Poland. Dressed up as Polish soldiers, they proceeded to raid their own radio tower. To cover their tracks, they did end up with some blood on their hands. They ended up killing a civilian who they also dressed up as a soldier, so they could deepen their lie of Polish soldiers attacking Germany. Finally, German soldiers broadcast a message saying the radio tower was in Polish possession even though it was not. This stunt prompted Adolf Hitler to justify Germany invading Poland despite Poland having no part in this attack.

A modern example of a false flag takes place just a few years ago in 2020. As tensions rose between India and Pakistan, they went back and forth accusing one another of using false flags along their shared border of Kashmir. A piece of land they have been at odds with for many years. These past flags have just been accusations. But after years of going back and forth, there was a legit false flag along the border of Kashmir.  Pakistan's foreign ministry accused Indian troops of firing at a vehicle that was located on Pakistan's side of the border. Pakistan accuses India of harming their international relations. In a letter to the U.N. they state that this was India creating a false flag so they could try invading and taking over the border. Anurag Srivastava, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, clarifies the accusation of a false flag was indeed false and India did nothing to harm Pakistan or the border of Kashmir.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60434579

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12534

https://www.britannica.com/topic/false-flag 

https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-india-kashmir-islamabad-c6ffad3af64682ce875d1e58790626a6