Artificial Intelligence: Convenience at the cost of privacy?

We live in an age that is witnessing the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Many companies have begun incorporating AI features in their operating systems and apps, whether we like it or not.

AI assistants are not new per se, the likes of Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa have existed for over a decade. But, the emergence of Open AI's ChatGPT changed how people view digital assistants. Chatbots offer a more interactive experience, you can text them like would a friend, access a history of your chats, and get relevant results. This was something that the old-gen couldn't provide, contextual interaction.

ChatGPT's sudden popularity attracted millions of users, which in turn grabbed the attention of Microsoft, the Silicon Valley mogul believed that AI could be the next step in the evolution of search engines. It didn't take very long before Microsoft partnered with Open AI to build its own chatbot in the form of Bing. In fact, Microsoft has invested a hefty sum in Open AI, to boost the development of the AI tools.

The Redmond company wasn't wrong, Bing managed to garner millions of users but the AI tool was rebranded as Microsoft Copilot. Shortly after debuting as a web-based service, the bot was introduced in Microsoft Edge browser, Windows 11, the Edge and Bing apps on Android and iOS, and even in SwiftKey Keyboard for mobile devices. Microsoft has since integrated Copilot in a number of apps including its Office apps, Word and PowerPoint, Office 365, Outlook and more.

Did you know that there is a dedicated Copilot key on keyboards? And there’s more, Microsoft Designer is widely used for generating images, and it's coming to Windows 11's Photos app, and is already available for iOS and Android devices. Google wasn't watching these developments idly on the sidelines, after all, its crown as the king of search engines was at stake. It unleashed its Gemini chatbot to compete with Copilot and ChatGPT.

AI usage peaked in the past year that Apple's hand was forced to introduce an AI of its own, lest its rivals gain a foothold. It is called Apple Intelligence, and has been designed to allow users to perform various tasks with ease. Apple Intelligence will be deeply integrated in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS to allow users to access writing tools, image creation options, and also works with third-party apps. The AI's language model uses Private Cloud compute to ensure that user data is end-to-end encrypted to protect the privacy of users. The Cupertino company had also announced that it had partnered with OpenAI to integrate Siri with ChatGPT. Siri it will request the user whether they want to use ChatGPT to seek answers for their query.

Artificial Intelligence is also spreading to social networks. X’s (formerly Twitter) Grok AI will use your data to train its language model. You can opt-out of it by toggling a setting. But do these opt-out settings actually work? Or are they just placeholders to protect the companies from lawsuits?

Brave Browser has its own assistant called Brave Leo AI. Even Mozilla announced that it is working on an experimental AI for its Firefox browser, but the announcement raised some eyebrows, as users were worried the privacy-friendly browser could potentially pose privacy-risks, but the organization reassured users that Mozilla AI would run locally on the user's computer.

Risks of using AI

Artificial Intelligence has its uses, it is good for summarizing text, generating creative images and designs, code for programming, writing letters, emails, and poems. But it also increases the chances of plagiarism and misuse of your data. Most, if not all of the language models are trained with content that is publicly available online, so there is always the possibility of chatbots providing misinformation or unverified data. Some businesses have opted to use chatbots for their customer support services, which might dampen the user-experience, it cannot offer the rapport that a user may have with a support executive.

Privacy experts have long accused Facebook and Google of harvesting user data, and selling them to advertises. AI But, users are willingly handing over their data to companies, and AI is going to harvest more data about you than ads and trackers ever did. When you interact with an AI, you are training the language model with your data. This is much worse than your data being stored on a server, since it is actually being used for "improving the services", which translates to business for the company, without considering how it may impact a user's privacy. The more you use an AI for personalized recommendations, the more it learns about you. For example, when you ask it to recommend a book or a movie or a game that is similar to one that you like, it will learn about your preferences. Similarly it may come to know your medical history, your financial status, what car you drive, where you live, your preferred brands, and possibly even your political alignment.

Take a look at what Microsoft Recall can do. The tool has been designed to capture a snapshot of your screen, and uses the content in it to create a searchable database. This will allow you to look up anything you have done on your screen. Experts were alarmed at the privacy risks that Recall could pose, and Microsoft backed down on introducing the feature on Snapdragon-powered CoPilot+ PCs. Microsoft Recall is not dead, it continues to evolve with new features that were introduced in the Windows Insider Program. It could be included as a part of the next major update for Windows 11.

Game companies have begun using AI-created art that was derived from images that were shared online by professional artists, without obtaining permission from them. Similarly, voice-actors have raised concerns about companies using their voices with AI to generate content without compensating them. Writers are losing jobs to AI as some outlets have started generating articles. The main problem with using AI for such things is the lack of a professional touch or personal emotion that a human can deliver, and nothing can beat experience.

Open AI is preparing SearchGPT, to enter the search engine market. Do we really need artificial intelligence in everything that we use? AI can be a useful tool when wielded with care, but it can become a menace if left unchecked.

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