How confident are you using technology? If you feel able to keep up with the current developments then you might be in the minority.
Almost three-quarters of Irish adults said technology was evolving faster than they could keep pace with, a recent survey from the Vodafone Foundation found. That rose to 81 per cent among those aged 65 and over, revealing a widening gulf in confidence and trust over new and emerging technology.
Key to this is fears around privacy and online safety. Almost half of those surveyed felt online safety and privacy affected their ability to benefit from technology.
The survey may only have been of a representative sample of 1,000 people, but it highlighted a problem for the Government, which is increasingly turning to digital services.
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The people who would most benefit from this technology, the ones who are engaging with healthcare systems, government departments and services, are the ones that are faltering in confidence. And how can you persuade people to engage with something they can’t trust?
Vodafone Foundation has its own solution here, with its Hi Digital initiative aimed at bringing digital skills and online safety training to older adults, and digital wellbeing and online safety app Tozi for younger people. But the problem needs wider co-operation to deal with it effectively.
There are many reasons people don’t feel comfortable with technology. There is creep factor, with devices that are intended to gather your data for commercial purposes or worse.
The pace of technology is too fast for others. You get the distinct impression that some tech companies would like it to move faster, unencumbered by the leash of regulation. Publicly calling for guardrails, but lobbying against them behind the scenes. They want regulation, but not that much, thanks very much.
Then there is the frustrating nature of some of the tech we are being told will make our lives easier. This month Microsoft changed one of its most pervasive – and irritating, in my opinion – features. Text predictions, those not-so-helpful suggestions that pop up in Word and Outlook when you are trying to type, will no longer be enabled by default.
It was a feature that was intended to be helpful, but like so many others created by Big Tech, for some it has become a hindrance, inserting random words as you typed. It was also the first one to go as soon as I figured out how to turn it off – along with the “focus” email inbox, also a Microsoft creation that never needed to be created.
Both used machine learning – a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that detects and uses patterns – to decide what was relevant to me. However, what the technology felt was relevant and what was actually important to me were two different things. And so these features were switched off.
But that isn’t an option for everything. AI is becoming increasingly embedded in our lives, whether we realise it or not. The same Vodafone survey found more than half of adults surveyed used AI daily or weekly. Among those aged 65 and over, it fell to 22 per cent. Forty-three per cent said they never used AI.
But I would feel safe in betting that the number who never use AI is much lower than they realise. Navigation apps, video streaming service recommendations, weather apps, even online shopping are all using the technology in some form.
It may not be a direct conversation with ChatGPT, but it counts, and most people do not realise that they are using it. That is because the definition of AI is a wide one, and not necessarily limited to the chatbots that we have come to know and in some cases loathe.
At the other end of the scale, parents feel their children are not equipped to deal with AI safely, despite the survey finding almost two-thirds of parents said their 11-14 year-old children already used AI.
A recent CyberSafeKids report revealed more concerning data: more than a quarter of primary school-aged children were interacting with AI-enabled chatbots. That gave rise to more concerns about unsupervised access to technology that at best can make mistakes. At its worst, it stands accused of acting as a “suicide coach” to a 16 year old in crisis or contributing to mental health crises.
Is it any wonder that people find it hard to trust technology? The horror stories stand out much more than the positive experiences.
Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan, who is also vice-chair of the Oireachtas joint committee on AI, made all the right noises at the Vodafone Foundation event. Media literacy must be a priority, he said, with Government, industry and education working together. “We cannot have a situation where people are simply expected to figure all of this out for themselves,” he said.
But those words will need to be backed up by action if they are to have any weight. Likewise, Government cannot leave it to private interests to govern themselves, even ones that are part of a growing industry in which Ireland has a financial interest.
