Porn Supporting New Technology

Despite the controversies surrounding porn, various technology started or became affordable thanks to people purchasing it for porn. In fact, I wonder if the types of technology listed below would have developed as fast without the support of porn.

Here are a few pieces of technology that the porn industry impacted:

• VHS prices were driven down because VHS allowed porn to be displayed, unlike it's competitor Betamax. You may think this sounds crazy, but keep in mind half the videotapes sold in the USA contained pornographic material.
• The DVD vs. Blu-ray battle somewhat mirrored VHS and Betamax's, but other factors like Warner Bros. making an exclusive deal with Blu-ray swayed the battle.
• Electronic Card Systems became the first way to pay online, and it was created for and used by… you guessed it: porn sites.

You may be thinking I'm missing something that feels it should originate from the porn industry: webcams. Surprisingly though, Cambridge set up the first webcam to check if the coffee pot was empty without getting up. I guess the coffee addiction prevailed porn for this one.

The Control Given to AI

Should a car hit a baby or elderly person?

After playing Absurd Trolley Problems, we learnt researchers use comparable questions to see how companies should train self-driving cars. The most fascinating part, in my opinion, is that the culture of the country may impact what the car decides. For example, individualistic cultures such as Canada would rather hit the elderly and let the baby live.

AI can also control what we see online. Moderation by algorithms on social media can filter out inappropriate content, but these algorithms do not understand the nuance of related content not always being inappropriate. Research suggest this occurred with #gay on Tumblr, because #gay was a tag commonly included in pornographic or hateful content (Gillespie, 2018).

It is further complicated when creators don't know what is allowed because social media platforms, like YouTube, do not inform users of what the algorithms filter out. Then, creators rely on algorithmic gossip: stories of other's experiences with the algorithms (Dergacheva and Katzenbach, 2023).

Well With All These Issues, is Hiding the Algorithms Good?

There may be some background to why AI algorithms sound so hush-hush, and it may be by design.

Something computer scientists learn early on in their degree is abstraction and encapsulation—hide how it works so the users focuses on what it does. These pillars make code more secure, maintainable, and user-friendly. For example, consider mortgage application screening. This tool narrows the applicant pool, but the people at the bank don't need to know how it works—just that it's selected the best candidates.

Like other AI issues mentioned, focusing on the what and not the how has downsides. In the example of mortgage application screening, 80% of Black mortgage applicants in the US were denied a loan, likely because the algorithm was not exposed to a diverse set of data.

Even worse, hiding these algorithms can allow platforms to sneak in other features, like TikTok tracking who watches LGBTQ+ content.

I believe companies should inform users of the factors that algorithms consider when making decisions and what data these algorithms are trained on. This way, these issues are avoided while still hiding the bulk of the algorithm.

Conclusion

These bits of history and ethics are only a touch of what I learnt in the first half of my Social Media and Content Creation course, that I hope to keep in mind as I continue my CS degree.

Likewise, I hope to inspire you to learn more about the history and ethics of the technology you use. Asking why is not just an annoying question from a child; it can give vital insight into why technology is the way it is today, and where it should go tomorrow.