October 31st
Over the weekend I stumbled upon on article (on buzzfeed naturally) about an artificial intelligence system that has accurately predicted the last three presidential elections that is predicting Donald Trump will win the election on November 8th. If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you would be able to guess how much this shocked and frightened me. The article did recognize that Clinton was ahead according to most polls, but apparently that is not what this system takes into account. Instead, this system looks at highest google searches, new stories, and other masses of data that can solely be found on the Internet rather than by talking to actual voters. If the system continues its trend of accuracy, I will be looking into moving to Canada. On a more serious note, I found it both pertinent and interesting that we could be relying on artificial intelligence to be predicting the election. In just over a week, the system’s accuracy will be put to a true test.
Moving on to the discussion we had today, I found everything David Eaves said about technology and government to be very interesting. Honestly, before reading the articles and listening to him speak today, I had never really thought about the lack of technology the government is implementing and how many everyday things could be bettered if the government was to make better use of technology. I specifically remember waiting on line for five hours to get a new social security card (my mom had lost mine) at the DMV, only to have to wait for another two hours to be able to take my driving permit test. Is that the maximum efficiency that the government can have? With today’s technology, people expect things instantly. Time literally is money, so what better way to make people happy than to save them time by putting more government activity on the Internet? Honestly, I think this is a question most politicians just haven’t been asking themselves or paying enough attention to. While the US Digitial Service is a step in the right direction, I agree with David Eaves in that there should be more of a push by government to implement effective, time-saving technology so that the customers (US Citizens) are happier with their products (the government). As also discussed, this is much easier said than done. I personally believe the problem with security is perhaps the hardest to overcome in this situation. While I don’t necessarily care if China hacks the US security database and discovers I have a dog, I do care if they find out what type of health condition I suffer from or any other more personal information that the government could store about me. Ultimately, in an ideal world, there is a way in which the government can put all its databases online and in one place, but that place would have to be very secure so that people can trust in the government while also saving time. Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world, but hopefully we continue to make strides towards this goal in the US.
I hope you’re doing fine after the election. There is a lot to be learned about polling after this election, and pollsters should be asking themselves what it means if data about what the country is doing differs from what the pollsters are hearing the country say. Privacy researchers have known about this dichotomy for a long time: People say that they value their privacy, but then they give it away for pennies.