Vulnerable People and Places Blog

    AI is everywhere in our lives whether we like it or not. People use it every day for all kinds of simple tasks. Yet, there are a growing number of people who use AI to help not only with organizing data and making suggestions, but also with managing their own mental health. In these cases, the AI acts as a “virtual therapist” to provide counsel for those seeking help. This seems like an appealing solution at first. Mental health resources are becoming more expensive and less accessible over time. Appointments can take months and even years to follow through. In that time, people might spiral and see their mental condition worsen without professional intervention. AI can combat these issues by being a readily available and comparatively cheap resource. However, there are quite a few dangers and downsides that come with turning a virtual chatbot into a therapist in lieu of a real professional. Firstly, AI chatbots and LLMs are prone to inaccurate assessments. Studies have fo...

If you don’t own any of your things. The companies that provide them own you. You pay $8 a month for Netflix. It’s dirt cheap! Seems like a pretty good deal, given the extensive library of media. It’s so easy to just watch content; no need to go to the store and buy a physical disk. There isn’t any point to buying a film and owning it in perpetuity. It’s on Netflix! Until it isn’t.  Digital products are a relatively recent innovation. A lot of digital products are treated like physical ones. You can buy a copy, and it is yours; you could send it to your friend, copy it to other computers; the possibilities are endless. Owning something digitally is different from a physical product because it isn't something you take home in your shopping cart. Digital products still exist in the reach of their producer. They exist in a way that their producer can still hold onto it while you "bring it home in your shopping cart". You can "bring the item home," but it is not you...

     Can AI data centers create a new kind of carbon emission? Apparently, because of the amount of energy that data centers take to power, that are called high-performance computing resources, take new heights of carbon emissions and struggles in environment sustainability. It has made such an impact, that a study that is linked here, is about the deficiency factors of power and productivity, and the toll it take on renewable energy sources that already exist.      These high-performance computing systems (or HPC) are for super computers, and the article goes into the purposes for these computers, mainly data science outside of artificial intelligence. While having the ability to have a cloud for data and important code in computer science, the carbon footprint of having many of these data centers will further deteriorate  the earth with the amount of climate change caused by big corporations for products that are not as significant for humanity....

      Have you ever wondered what's actually going on with new AI data centers? There's more to it than most people realize. The technological components of one of these new data centers are not just about the power of AI, but risks that people seem to underestimate. Because of the rapid growth of AI in corporations and it's seemingly limitless capability has made things move quicker in investing in this opportunity. The convenience of more productivity being automated, has a bigger cost that everyday citizens see and experience.      The expansion of AI data centers across the United States takes up a lot of land, and the amount of power used constantly is not good for our environment. With long-term planning and interconnection, issues arise such as imbalances of how long it takes data centers to be built, which can be a couple of years. In that time of construction, the county or region the data center is being built on could have drastic changes an...

      Powering the Future: Can Oregon’s Energy Grid Keep Up with the Technology Boom?”   In my previous blog, I explored how Oregon became one of the nation’s fastest-growing locations for data centers and the hidden resources required to power our digital lives. But behind every server, every AI request, and every cloud service is one resource that makes it all possible: electricity. As technology continues to expand across Oregon, the question is no longer just where the future will be built is whether we have enough power to support it. Since writing my previous blog, “The Cloud Lives Here: Oregon’s Data Center Boom and the Hidden Cost Behind Every Click,” the conversation surrounding data centers has continued to evolve. In Hillsboro, city leaders have taken steps to pause and re-evaluate future data center development while studying the long-term impacts on infrastructure, energy, water, and land use. These discussions are not happening in isolation. Acr...

You wake up tomorrow, and you have a robot to do everything for you. It makes you breakfast. It cleans your house. It drives you places. You can ask it any question.    It can even tell you what to watch! Sounds pretty great right? It kind of is. While WALL-E takes you on a humorous journey, it also provides us with some insight to a world where we let technology consume our lives.  WALL-E was made in 2008, but there are some lessons from the movie that are even more applicable today. WALL-E: What Does the Movie Have to Do With Artificial Intelligence  When Earth is too full of trash, humans are forced to live on a gigantic spaceship called the Axiom.    While living on the Axiom, everyone has robots wait on them hand and foot. People spend their days sitting in swivel chairs. Staring at screens.  Robots spoon-feed them meals and allow them to be completely helpless. Even though the humans in WALL-E have it pretty good, they have become overly depende...

      Artificial intelligence is starting to play a role in content creation on social media platforms. Hours of filming, editing, and writing captions can now be done in minutes with AI. Whether it’s AI generating videos and captions or editing photos and pitching you ideas, AI is becoming heavily used to create social media content. Apps like TikTok and Instagram have allowed AI to help creators in many different ways. AI has opened many new doors for content creators. Whether you are a small business or an everyday creator who may not have had the funds to pay for an editor, graphic designer, or social media team. Artificial intelligence has allowed people to create content that looks like a professional made it. Many content creators have used AI to gain more followers, get sponsorships, and create opportunities for themselves where they are now able to make a living from social media. Along with the ability to quickly create content, AI allows you to discover pr...