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Our digital intelligence: a new literacy

2023-06-07T09:41:27.958Z

Highlights: Our digital intelligence: a new literacy. Regulation is key, but it will not be enough if we do not also incorporate a change in our individual behavior in the face of the advance of technology in all areas of our lives, says María Laura García. The technologies themselves are neutral, but their power of impact is not and depends on the use we make of them. By knowing better the rules of the game and working on our digital intelligence, we can mitigate its effect and thus move towards a more plural, just and inclusive society.


Our digital intelligence: a new literacy


A few weeks ago Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, spoke in front of the United States Senate and called for regulating artificial intelligence (AI) urgently. Around the same time, the state of Montana banned the use of Tik Tok on all personal phones, arguing that the app posed a risk to the privacy and security of its users.

But this is not just another note about ChatGPT, about its evils or opportunities, or about how to legislate AI. Regulation is key, but it will not be enough if we do not also incorporate a change in our individual behavior in the face of the advance of technology in all areas of our lives.

The technologies themselves are neutral, but their power of impact is not and depends on the use we make of them. Therefore, it is worth asking ourselves how much we have developed our understanding of the rules of the game in digital life, that is, our digital intelligence.

In this framework, digital literacy, that is, the skills we have to acquire to be able to think freely in the digital age, becomes a fundamental factor. It is not only about knowing how the tools work, but about understanding, thanks to critical thinking, the consequences that an incorrect use of these tools could have on our lives.

Among the different skills that we must develop, and that make up what we now call digital intelligence, is the management of privacy, understood as the ability to value and care for one's own privacy and that of others.

For example, we must pay close attention to websites, Apps or social networks, since their business models work thanks to the gigantic amount of data we provide daily. While consenting to the privacy policy of a particular online site is our decision, we must be aware, if we accept them, of why we do so and what implications such a decision has.

Another fundamental aspect of our digital intelligence is critical thinking, which allows us, among other things, to distinguish between true and false information.

The latter becomes particularly difficult at times when misinformation abounds, in addition to the fact that we rarely ask ourselves the source of the information we obtain when we consume, or even share, a certain content.

This task becomes increasingly complex because as we know, social networks are configured to feed their algorithms with data of our preferences, which allows them to provide us with content related to our interests and ideas, but that do not always have reliable sources.

Even so, working on the development of our critical thinking in the digital age is of vital importance, since it allows us to challenge our own thinking, broaden our gaze, question it.

Having critical thinking also implies recognizing the biases and cognitive effects to which we are constantly exposed. In an AI-permeated world, biases in algorithms can manifest themselves in two ways.

On the one hand, there are the biases that programmers can reflect in the algorithms they develop, and it is essential to identify them because they could lead to situations of inequality and discrimination.

On the other, there are the biases that are intentionally used by digital platforms to keep us active longer in the digital space and thus obtain more and better information from us.

One example is confirmation bias, which leads us to consume information aligned with our pre-existing beliefs, preferences, and expectations. By working on our digital intelligence and critical thinking, we can easily identify these biases and avoid falling into our own information bubbles.

Today more than ever we have to assume our role as a key player in the interaction between technology and society. Although we often think that this is a debate that "we have too big", given its complexity and multiplicity of actors, there is much we can do, as individuals, to mitigate the potential negative impact of technological developments on our behavior.

By knowing better the rules of the game and working on our digital intelligence, we can mitigate its effect and thus move towards a more plural, just and inclusive society.

María Laura García is a Communication Consultant. Author of "The Digital Challenge" (Granica, 2023)


Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-06-07

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