Blog 8
One of the most informative and inspiring lectures was Scott Christiansen’s lecture on Artificial Intelligence. AI technology is quickly advancing and there are many questions about its potential that society has yet to understand. Because the implications of AI are unknown, we should be weary of the dangers it could pose. One of the dangers being the use of artificial intelligence by autocratic governments to monitor and control its citizens. Artificial intelligence would give rulers the ability to to monitor almost every aspect of our lives from social media, text messages and tracking movements. Advances in artificial technology could pose a huge threat to our right to privacy. Many also fear that the growing prevalence in artificial technology in online marketing and advertising may decrease economic productivity in the United States. The fear is that AI will be so good at marketing to consumers that companies may become overvalued. This was a big problem in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. With the rapid growth of the internet during this time, tech start-up companies began to sprout up left and right. Investors, seeing the future earning potential of these start-ups began investing lots of money in these companies. In response these companies used most of their budget for advertising rather than producing value. It soon became a reciprocating system where more advertising increased market sales and investors pumped more money into their budgets. Company valuations became severely overvalued and eventually burst in 2001. Investors lost billions of dollars as a result. The fear is that the introduction of artificial technology would become extremely efficient in marketing products to consumers. This could create another dot-com bubble if investors once again get enticed by increasing market sales without profits to back it up.
Another very informative lecture was the one given by Peter Motavalli on treating world Hunger. This lecture was particularly inspiring because of its prevalence. There are billions of people in the world that struggle to find food. Countries in Africa and Asia have the greatest share of malnutrition in children. Conversely in many developed countries obesity is becoming an increasing issue. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “in 2018, childhood overweight affected 40.1 millions children under five in the world; while in 2016, nearly two in five adults worldwide.” He also talked about the effects an economic downturn in the economy can have on food security and nutrition. Economic slow downs are strongly correlated with decreased food security. Economic slow downs often lead to a rise in unemployment and a decline in wages and income. As a result people may find it more difficult to have access to food if they cannot pay for it. This ties in perfectly with the Coronavirus. Many fear that if businesses shut down for too long due to coronavirus concerns, food insecurity could pose a huge problem. The difficulty in timing the reopening of the United States is on one hand ensuring that we do not see another upsurge in coronavirus cases, but also ensuring that we do not economically deteriorate to a point where people can no longer afford to feed themselves.
I gained a lot of insights doing research on the country of Colombia. One being that Colombia is plagued by corruption. Corruption in Columbia is the result of drug trafficking, guerilla conflicts and intimidation of whistleblowers. The current environment of Colombia does not have the ability to facilitate a healthy economy. However, non-government organizations such as the Nation Federation of Colombian Coffee growers are working to turn the economy around by helping small business owners. While this is a step in the right direction, their corrupt political structure and saturation of drug trafficking will continue to be the plague of Colombia until it is changed.
South America 