The 21st century has seen many innovations that have transformed the way we live today. Those born in the 1990s can vouch for that – many gadgets and inventions previously seen only in sci-fi shows are now available at one’s convenience. Some of the examples include the development and widespread use of the Internet, the introduction of machine translators, and more recently, the introduction of neural networks for image generation (Edelbach & Winston, 2013). This paper will describe the effects each change had on society, and make predictions in which it might further affect our lives.
The Internet is one of the cornerstones of modern living. Though nearly non-existent during the 1990s, nowadays most of the planet enjoys access to it for educational, informational, leisure, and business purposes (DeNardis, 2020). The Internet enabled individuals to connect to one another quickly, share and exchange great volumes of information, and provided a space for leisure and journalism. The Internet as a transnational space in which services and information can be accessed for free, which helped move education and communication further than ever before (DeNardis, 2020). It is impossible to completely censor information on the Internet as well, so its creation is associated with advances in democracy across the world.
Machine translators are programs that help translate text from one language to another. One of the most famous free versions of such software includes Google Translate (Bowker & Ciro, 2019). Although starting as clunky instruments that needed more editing after each translation, nowadays the software has been greatly improved. It is capable of translating technical documentation and legal documents with a surprising degree of accuracy, and is even adept of doing the same with literature, songs, and other forms of media (Rustad, 2015). Programs exist that enable reading signs and documents by pointing a camera at them and waiting for a little bit. The invention had a tremendous effect on the society – on the one hand, it enabled people to travel and understand information freely. On the other hand, the introduction of such software landed a severe blow on the many individuals across the world working in the translator industry by reducing their role to simply correctors of machine-translated texts, while also enabling users to perform simple translations without the use of specially-trained individuals (Bowker & Ciro, 2019). As a result, the industry shrunk considerably and is expected to disappear in the next 10 to 20 years.
Neural network image generators are the most recent example in technological innovations. This is a complex network capable of learning and simulation of creative thought, in order to generate imagery (Li et al., 2019). As time goes on, the algorithms become more adapt at recognizing patterns, delivering the expected results. As it stands, the programs use key words and work with search engines in order to understand concepts and create art in great detail (Li et al., 2019). Though the technology is in its nascent stages, the arts industry already feels threatened by its ability to create genuine non-copyright art for potential commercial use.
In the future, neural networks will be used for much more than simply idle image generation. As they become more conscious of other areas of creative industry, they would be able to write music, create animated pictures, tell jokes, and occupy other facets of the entertainment industry. Though potentially threatening many individuals already working in those areas, they could make access to such even freer than before(Li et al., 2019). Moreover, neural networks would enable users to create their own content, with their help. Finally, this technology could be the next step to true AI, which would have significant effects on how humans view technology. It is possible for them to even become the first ever artificial life-forms, created by humans to share the Universe with.
References
Bowker, L., & Ciro, J. B. (2019). Machine translation and global research: Towards improved machine translation literacy in the scholarly community. Emerald Group Publishing.
DeNardis, L. (2020). The Internet in everything. Yale University Press.
Edelbach, R. & Winston, M. (2013). Society, ethics, & technology (5th ed.). Cengage.
Li, B., Qi, X., Lukasiewicz, T., & Torr, P. (2019). Controllable text-to-image generation. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 32, 1-10.
Rustad, M. L. (2015). Global internet law in a nutshell (3rd ed.). West Academic Publishing.