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Summary of the Reading
This paper presents a review of expert and non-expert feelings toward risks with emerging technologies. The paper used a risk survey that was previously used to assess perceptions of risk. This survey was sent out to experts, in the form of people with careers related to technology, and non-experts, in the form of workers on MTurk. While MTurk workers might be slightly more tech-savvy than average, they also tend to be less educated.
The results showed that experts tended to think more things were more risky. The non-experts tended to downplay the risks of many activities much more than the experts. The results also showed that more voluntary risks were seen as less risky than other forms of risk. It seems like people perceive more risk when they have less control. It also showed that both experts and non-experts saw many emerging technologies as non voluntary, even though these technologies usually get consent from users for everything.
Reflections and Connections
I think that this paper is more important than ever, and it will only continue to get more important as time goes on. In our modern world, more and more of the things we interact with everyday are data driven technologies that weld extreme power, both to help us do things better and for bad actors to hurt innocent people.
I also think that the paper’s conclusions match up with what I expected. Many new technologies are abstract and the inner workings of them are never seen. They are also much harder to understand for laypersons than the technology of decades past. In the past, you could see that your money was secure in a vault, you could see that you had a big lock on you bike and that it would be hard to steal it, you would know that the physical laws of nature make it hard for other people to steal your stuff, because you had a general idea of how hard it was to break your security measures and because you could see and feel the things you had to protect yourself. Now, things are much different. You have no way of knowing what is protecting your money at the bank. You have no way of knowing, much less understanding the security algorithms that companies use to keep your data safe. Maybe they’re good, maybe they’re not, but you probably won’t know until someone hacks in. The digital world also disregards many of the limits that we experienced in the past and in real life. In real life, it is impossible for someone in India to rob me, without going through a lot of hassle. But, an online hacker can break into bank accounts all across the world and be gone without a trace. This new world of risk is just so hard to understand because we aren’t used to it and because it looks so different to the risks we experience in real life.
Questions
- How can we better educate people on the risks of the online world?
- How can we better connect abstract online security vulnerabilities to real world, easy to understand vulnerabilities?
- Should companies need to be more transparent about security risks to their customers?
Interesting reflections! I particularly liked the comparison between real-world risks and the risks involved in the new “digital” world. Regarding the third question, “Should companies need to be more transparent about security risks to their customers?”, I definitely feel that the answer is yes. The results of this study revealed that a majority of the participants marked all risks relating to emerging technologies as characteristically involuntary. This provides evidence that the information is not getting through to the customers. Companies definitely should strive to present the risks in a concise and clear manner.
Pertinent questions, indeed! I believe (as I mentioned during your presentation last class), journalism has a big role to play in the AI/risk narrative. Overhyping the technology, in my opinion, is not beneficial in any sense to anyone except the investors (if the technology is good and important, it will make its way eventually regardless of hype). On the contrary, scrutinizing these new forms of technology, getting the right messaging and developing a sense of foresight can go a long way in educating the public. Pretty sure, a comment box does not qualify for answering this question, when there are so many forces in power that are responsible for the public not being educated enough or educated the way they are right now.