The phrase ‘the tool is directing the user’ means that users of searches and other programs embedded with Artificial Intelligence (AI) no longer control what they view and see. The AI is given control over what a person will search and view. Googles AI anticipates what will be searched by a user based on their most recent searches e.g. the image attached shows we have been looking at bookstores (this was part of my research for ETL503. It also reveals I’ve previously searched history and as a result has suggested I may want “books on history” (yeah, ok I get it I am a History Teacher and I like books!).Googles AI even goes as far as suggesting “book of mormon” which was simply mentioned by a friend in Facebook chat. I could continue to explain each one of these suggestions but that is unnecessary detail of my life.
The embedded AI is not just in searches but in all aspects of technological accessories. Predictive text AI results in people not needing to spell words (I just wrote an email and it was trying to tell me what I was going to write next, apparently to speed my writing up! I didn’t even know this existed until two hours ago), or even type. Text messages can be formed by predictive text or even go as far as forming text messages by speaking into the phones microphone, no need to type, spell or even read your messages. The use of AI technology is changing the digital environment to one of convenience only, with limited thinking and interaction required.