Assignment 2: https://vimeo.com/712064786
Assignment 2 Reflection:
The prompt for assignment two was a synthetic media portrait, a short 3-minute film on a day in the life of an AI system. Considering the brief, I decided to explore the future potential of a home assistance system, similar to what we see in homes today with smart speakers like google home. Focusing on the benefits of these systems, as well as, the potential threats.
Background
My short film, “Home Assistant”, followed a system in the home of a person. The system was involved throughout day of the person while they were in their house- waking them up, paying their bills, playing music and ordering them food. The system also had the ability to detect when the person was hungry and offered them food (a potential in the expansion and development existing technologies in the future). Highlighting the benefits that this AI technology can offer us. However, at the end of my short film, this system is hacked, releasing this person’s data and the data of others across the country. Also highlighting the potential dangers of this system.
The threats and dangers that these systems pose are explored in an article by the guardian- “‘Alexa are you invading my privacy?’- The dark side of our voice assistants” by Dorian Lynskey (2019). This article particularly focuses on privacy concerns related to these AI technologies, and the conflict between efficiency and privacy. As these systems collect tons of data on their users. An idea that I aimed to highlight in my short film. This is particularly relevant and necessary to explore with the growing number of people using this technology. The article referencing research that showed 1 in 5 adults in the US own a home voice assistant.
“The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation” (Brundage et al. 2018), also explores potential threats that future AI systems can introduce. They highlight the idea of new threats that can “exploit vulnerabilities in AI systems”. For instance, the potential of these systems to be hacked, like I captured in my short film.
Evaluation of the Final Short Film,”Home Assistant”
I shot the short film in my apartment, and I aimed for a natural atmosphere, to make the system appear realistic. Although, because it was shot across several days, I struggled to keep the set consistent and if you pay attention to the background of shots there may be slight differences. This is something that I will work on in the future and aim to shoot everything in one day to avoid these inconsistencies.
The editing process for this assignment was a lot longer, and more comprehensive than any of the other projects that I have worked on. Through YouTube tutorials, I taught myself how to make the screen turn into static, which is something I will definitely take away from this assignment and use in future projects. Although, in the editing process I struggled with editing the audio and eliminating background noise. Which is something I need to work on in the future.
Overall, I think that my final short film successfully explored a day in the life of an AI system- the benefits, as well as, potential threats that they can pose to us.
Reference List
Brundage, M., Avin, S., Clark, J., Toner, H., Eckersley, P., Garfinkel, B., Dafoe, A., Scharre, P., Zeitzoff, T., Filar, B. and Anderson, H. (2018). The malicious use of artificial intelligence: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.07228.
Lynskey, D. (2019). ‘Alexa are you invading my privacy?’- The dark side of our voice assistants. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/09/alexa-are-you-invading-my-privacy-the-dark-side-of-our-voice-assistants