In the book “Algorithms of Oppression”, the author, Safiya Umoja Noble investigates the different oppressed groups in America and relates it to the internet and search algorithms. Her argument focuses around algorithms that are supposed to be nonobjective and free from human bias. She claims that many large, corporate companies that control the algorithms for search engines are infiltrated with workers and engineers that have bias while designing them; sexism, racism, etc… She argues that this unfairly affects minorities and leaves them with more challenges.
This is tough for me to respond to. I am a Caucasian male and will admit I have yet to face any of these challenges listed within the pages of Safiya Noble’s book. That doesn’t mean I haven’t faced challenges in my life, they are just different then others.
It is unfortunate that some use their power to control the narrative. In this case, Google engineers working on software algorithms are embedding their personal bias into the code. I don’t believe this defines Google as whole, there are always bad apples in a group. Oppressive issues shouldn’t be ignored, people need to be held accountable for their actions. At the same time those people shouldn’t define the entire group which often happens.
I enjoyed reading excerpts from Safiya Noble’s book and feel I gained valuable perspective into what minorities deal with daily. The examples she gave such as google search results was enlightening and I agree that these algorithms should be neutral and objective. I believe the author has ultimately brought light to a situation that needed attention and it has and will continue to make a difference. Her goal was to open dialect on the topic and she undoubtedly accomplished that because we can talk about it on our blog! Looking forward to reading other responses!

The show starts off with the crew members playing cards.

Reading facial expression is key to card games

I was thinking what the episode was about from just the title and I opined that it was about testing what man can accomplish.

Took a break and read the excerpt about algorithms in search engines such as google.

I believe that one day the computers will take over the world and bring humanity to extinction.

The data guy creeps me out with his artificial tone trying to sound like someone without any emotions in their voice.

AI learn from experience not from books according to what Data stated

I believe that AIs will never have true emotions like us humans.

Rights to AIs?

• I believe that AIs shouldn’t have any rights because they are not humans and can be unpredictable and can overpower us humans.

It is seen that Data is seen as a property of the fleet and cannot be resigned because he is a robot and not a human and doesn’t have any rights.

This attachment that some of these officers in the Starfleet have to the AI is something that is blinding them from seeing that AIs are not humans and are unpredictable.

Data is a machine that is made by humans, so it doesn’t have any rights that a human does.

The person defending data makes a good point that humans are made by other humans thus we can’t just say that those humans have no rights.

It seems that Data has found love as an AI which surprises me and make me rethink my first train of thought about AIs.

A person can be seen as someone that have the traits of intelligence, self-awareness, and a concussion

What i have read from the excerpt showed me that we feeding into the minds of the young about racism through the internet. The internet has become a place where there is no filter to anything. Also, it is not right that people making programs for search engines have the right to feed into sexist and racist attitides.

-Tanvir Youhana