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Unit 2

Unit 2 Annotated Bibliography

Intro:

How worried should we be about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)? That is the question my annotated bibliography is based around. I became interested in this topic while I was exploring subject matters for an engineering assignment in my freshman year of high school. The subject matter that I settled on was something along the lines of why A.I. should be incorporated further into mechanical engineering. It amazed me how useful it could be but what fascinated me more was how equally if not unequally dangerous it could be. The cost seemed to far outweigh the benefits and still do now depending on the lens you look at it from. I’ve kept up with the topic over the years and it’s sparked a hobby of sorts. I expect to find people talking more about the dangers of A.I. than the benefits. Most of the research I did before on the topic followed this trend. It would be a pleasant surprise to find an article or video that had otherwise, it might even change my opinion on it for the better. I doubt that will happen though as most of the articles I have read portray fewer benefits than anything, most likely due to the majority of people seeing cost over or at least before benefit. Honestly, if I found a genre for this topic that painted a brighter picture of the benefits I would have to use that here as it would balance out the other entries a bit more.

 

Source Entry #1:

Shane, Janelle. “The Danger of AI Is Weirder than You Think.” TED Talks, 22 Oct. 2019, www.ted.com/talks/janelle_shane_the_danger_of_ai_is_weirder_than_you_think?language=en.

Shane talks about what she thinks is one of the major concerns about A.I. should be. She goes on to talk about how A.I. differs from simple computer coding starting at its core. Shane briefly mentions how coding is laying out the process step by step and giving the necessary tools to solve it. While A.I. is fundamentally different. You give it a goal and wait to see how it solves the problem because giving it the answer will defeat the purpose. The example she displays is asking an A.I. to use a set amount of parts to assemble a robot to then go from point A to point B. The A.I. then decides to create a tower out of the pieces and topple itself to achieve the goal. So the point she tries to make is that we shouldn’t focus on A.I.  rebelling against humanity but rather it doing what we want just not how we want it done. She tries to provoke thought on the topic of how to express a problem to an A.I. and how to articulate it in a way that leads the A.I. to a conclusion we desire and not simply what the optimal decision is. I love some of the examples Shane uses to get her point across, my favorite being when she says “But when David Ha set up this experiment, he had to set it up with very, very strict limitations on how big the A.I. was allowed to make the legs… And technically it got to the end of that obstacle course (3:25–4:00).”. I loved learning about this part as it gave me a different perspective on the perceived problems when developing A.I. as I had never thought about it like that. It always made me wonder what led her to that angle of thought and why she used the images and examples she did in the video, thinking about it now makes a lot more sense, as they aptly display both a relatable real-world problem (when Shane mentions the ice cream flavors in the intro) as well as a conceptual one (when she mentions shows the two experiments). I understand the concept for her thought and why she used the medium she did. When sharing information via a Ted Talk, comprehensive and easy to follow slides fit the bill perfectly, especially because they were simple enough that a child could understand, as well as thought-provoking enough that research and debates could be held over it.

 

Source Entry #2:

Ghosh, Anushka. “PPT Presentation on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.” Anushka Ghosh, 19 Dec. 2017, www.slideshare.net/AnushkaGhosh5/ppt-presentation-on-artificial-intelligence.

Ghosh and the other members of her team throughout this PowerPoint illustrate what A.I. is as a basic equation: Artificial + Intelligence = Artificial Intelligence. They then go on to show a brief timeline ranging from 1950-2016. They go even further by briefly going over the history of A.I., as well as the current status (in 2017), and even a few of the goals. Throughout the rest of the slides, they each have a few bullet points about select topics ranging from A.I. platforms to advantages and disadvantages, all the way to what they believe the next decade will bring. This was the most underwhelming of the 3 sources, most closely pertaining to the fact that it was presented in slides format and didn’t have as much information as I would have liked. It was however very easy to understand and slightly thought-provoking, but again after going over the other two this one just seemed a little lackluster. I lack interesting questions after reading it. I would only like to ask this team why they decided to present it in this form because it can leave much to be desired in the explanation department as it only offers a few too-the-point bullets. 

 

Source Entry #3:

Kurzweil, Ray. “The Singularity Is Near » Questions and Answers.” THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: When Humans Transcend Biology, 22 Sept. 2005, www.singularity.com/qanda.html.

Kurzweil writes this piece in a Q&A format. He starts by telling the readers what a singularity is writing that “Within a quarter century, nonbiological intelligence will match the range and subtlety of human intelligence.” He then goes on to write about the projected calculations per second (cps) necessary to achieve this feat and how close we are to reaching that goal. Further down the line, Kurzweil explains how we have narrow A.I. that can do specific tasks but lack general intellect. Kurzweil mentions how technologies increase is exponential and not linear which leads to his prediction that this boom of sorts will occur in the year 2045. He then goes on to write about nanotechnology and overpopulation but for the sake of sticking strictly to the topic of A.I. I will omit the latter half of this piece. Most of the points illustrated in this Q&A that correlate directly to A.I. are timgated projections of what could and should occur after a set amount of years leaving plenty of room for computational error and expectations as it is purely a guesstimate. That leaves me slightly dissatisfied but it was to be expected as this book that the information is from is more than a decade old. It does however lead me to wonder exactly how off and or on track we are to said projections, are we directly on Kurzweil’s timeline, or did we differ at intervals? It wouldn’t take a considerable amount of research to understand his points, but it would be more than what I am presenting here as he gets into subdivisions of the expansion and development of A.I. that would leave far too much to talk about. The Q&A from the book left me with more questions than answers which to me is great because that only made me want to learn more about the rest of the topic he covers. I believe he wrote this as further clarification to questions people had or would have had after reading through his book.

 

Conclusion:

Throughout my research, I learned of a few of the lenses through which people use to judge the dangers of A.I.. In source 1 brought up my favorite quote that I believe captures the overall theme of the Ted Talk: “But when David Ha set up this experiment, he had to set it up with very, very strict limitations on how big the A.I. was allowed to make the legs… And technically it got to the end of that obstacle course(3:25–4:00).”. It perfectly captures Sane’s point about how we would be more focused on how A.I. would do what we want just not how, instead of focusing on a potential rebellion. The second entry only glosses over a few topics I had already come across, the basic questions if you will about what, why, when, and how. The final piece goes over far too much information to cover in this paper and could easily take up an essay by itself so only the relevant details were added. It might not have been the most thought-provoking to me, but it had the most information and offered a great deal of clarity, and required the most prior knowledge. What surprised me most was the sheer domino effect that A.I. would cause which wasn’t expanded upon in this bibliography. The answer to my question expanded by at least 2 separate levels, such as A.I. going the optimal route instead of the desired one, and the effects it would have on medical technology. This was important because it leads to an entirely different set of problems that need to be worked through before A.I. can be safely implemented into everyday life. It would be such a great achievement if those issues could be beta-tested in a controlled environment which they would have to be anyway, but avoiding life-threatening issues due to this simple fault is what would have to be ended before anything else. Philosophers and the R&D departments actively participating in A.I. would be the first to hear this information. On one hand, it’s purely technological but on a deeper level it’s effectively the creation of life, it’s a new creature in itself. The next on the list would probably be doctors as nanotechnology would skyrocket effectively revolutionizing modern medicine and other medical practices. Just think about tiny nanoscopic machines that could be utilized to heal and extend or prolong human life expectancy. After that, it’s a tie between militaries and politicians, as commercialization and militaristic use would be inevitable after A.I. became widespread enough, or it could end up being the first place it’s utilized.

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Portfolio & Reflection Weekly Assignments

Final reflection

The Final Reflection

Firstly having started late wasn’t really a bonus, I was quite worried that I might not be able to catch up or do the work properly which is why my first main assignment “unit 1 – education” kind of stressed me out A little bit because it required for me to reflect on past memories ,events and my views on education and as I mentioned in the essay “My education experience was all over the place”, I moved around a lot and had different experiences and I had to pin it all down to one particular event that made me change my mind about school and link it to now , how it help me become the person I am today , at the beginning I was struggling a little bit as I was mostly just explaining my process rather than to focus on one main event that impacted my education view but after making the first draft and getting peer reviews and feedback from the teacher this help me focus back on the essay purpose and do well.

The first few assignments in my English class really tested my reading and writing skills as I’m normally a very quick reader more like skimming through but in English it requires you to actually read fully to be able understand it properly , annotate and write an essay about it which is also good as a help me to read better between the lines and with structuring and forming  my own writing. Essays like “read as a writer” and “shitty draft” really helped me in this class as I used to just straight write the final product instead of making a rough draft and brainstorming ideas  overthinking the meant to be rough draft which now I find it way more helpful to have a summarized paragraph and then develop them into the final essays. This also will help me with my other subjects in college and all the upcoming assignments I have is mostly all about writing and reading.

For this final reflection I had to revise all my previous assignment and reflect on everything I did for the first main assignment “Unit 1” I wasn’t really attentive to the process but rather more into the topic and writing a good essay and I believe that if I had focused more on one specific event and structured more it would’ve made it better but in unit 2 I was more attentive as it required more research , I also got to choose my own topic,  I actually liked this assignment as I did enjoy doing research and it was something similar to what I was doing in my marketing class, an annotated bibliography it’s something I would definitely re-do. Unit 2 also helped with apa citation which I lost points for before in my fashion class but this time I knew how to do it.

However the unit  that I liked the most was “unit 3” most of the work was already done in unit 2 as it is the same topic and kind of just passing down information putting it to plan while explaining the process , this required to make an artist statement about the process itself which actually helped me make the final product as I could so it’s kind of like the brainstorming ,I loved making the brochure as it involves graphic designing and less written work.

My favorite assignment was definitely the Unit 3 as as I mentioned before “My happiest hour of this whole project was definitely doing the booklet/brochure cover and editing it” this was about making a creative way to basically communicate the information of your genre ,and I really liked it because I feel like it was the easiest process and I got to make a brochure as when you think of English class it’s more of essay after essay and reading based on my experience in London but I guess this is college so it’s different and it includes of helping with different skills as much as showing you new ones .

In conclusion for overall each assignment, discussion and essay I’ve read has contributed one way or another to this class and other classes I’ve had  in a good way as it either has given me some type knowledge on a topic , better my skills specially in writing and reading and given me more practice it also even helped me better my skills on hobbies outside of college like graphic designing and taught my self more about online retailing in the process of making the annotated  bibliography .

 

Categories
Portfolio & Reflection Weekly Assignments

Final reflection revision

Unit 1 Revision:

For unit 1 I struggled a little bit at the beginning but after a good feedback from the teacher which was to focus more on my introduction and thesis I change it up found a way to make a kind of a focus on one main events while still including different experiences Looking back I should’ve probably narrowed down a little bit more but the pizza paper method actually helped refining my essay specially my introduction and thesis.

UNIT 1 – Education

Education is confusing or maybe it isn’t, maybe I just have hard time adapting to it. I could pass the exams, do well in class, be the best student, but does all that benefit me outside of school ?

I mean I can still succeed another way.

There is many other alternatives to education, the question is how far can they really get me , I went from not understanding the benefits of education to not liking it all to enjoying education and actually benefiting from it.

Having a good teacher and doing a subject I liked changed my whole experience in school because I felt motivated to learn.

My education experience was all over the place but I’m glad to say that at this present day I believe in education and that my experience has helped shape me into the person that I am today and all thanks to my college experience which is what shaped my relationship with education.

Learning new languages, adapting to a new curriculum was not always as easy, which was what caused my confusion with school over the years.

My emotions in middle school were feeling scared of embarrassing myself or frustrated because I was doing something simpler than other kids.

Being someone that doesn’t like asking for help or even asking twice when I didn’t understand made me work harder but also more difficult as this caused me to learn myself in the context of when I didn’t understand instead of asking and get an answer straightaway I will wait till I get home and find out by myself but when I was studying in Switzerland ,I realize that it’s easier and faster to learn languages when your communicating and letting yourself make mistakes

As I was growing up I started adapting quicker enabling me to fully learn and feel more comfortable even though I was still very shy, specially back in Spain, one of the things teacher would always say that I would never put my hand up despite knowing the answer or needing help as I barely talked but it did not help that I could sit in class all day no teacher would make sure I’m updated with all the work or anything as I started in the middle of school.

To be honest when I was young I loved learning but when I moved high schools to the UK I started falling behind ,at first I always kept to myself and tried to adapt but in high school everything was different.

Between lack of motivation and being distracted I limited myself to learning and it did not help that I didn’t like the school at that point I was only looking forward to the fun at lunch time and after school rather than how to get good grades. I left with 3 Gcse which according to my school I wouldn’t be able to “move forward” and that didn’t help at all as it just made me not care rather than motivating me.

My college experience it’s what made me focus back in school, this one particular teacher really helped me ,she made sure me and my friends always completed our work at the best possible ,she would tell us to stay over and review what we done so far to help us even though we wasn’t the best students but she always looked out for us and kept us from getting in trouble and excluded as schools in UK are very strict,as well the course I was doing was art and travel and tourism, getting to go out and travel every now and then was a nice experience which made us enjoy the course more and kept us motivated to pass the class. Before this I was really unmotivated and didn’t see the point in school. The only thing kept in there was because of my parents and friends. The qualification from this school and my high school is what brought me here today as this is what got me into this university/college and opened many opportunities for me which is why I’m not able to do the major of my choice and pursue my career.

In conclusion my college (high school in the US) experience is what benefited me the most ,it taught me that if your good with your teachers and is interested in the course you have higher chances of passing it ,this is also where I had my first work experience which was made by the school and this benefited me outside of education and I am very grateful as this the reason I’m still in school today ,I am also at a more mature age to know what my priorities are and how to move forward.

Unit 2 Revision :

For this unit I kind of just went straight into the final draft this was kind of like an easier assignment as it was with research and backing up my hypothesis , one I might’ve done maybe narrow down my hypothesis but I feel like I did quite well on this assignment and finding the right the resources ,and choosing my own genre/ topic really helped me.

UNIT 2- annotated bibliography

Why is social media and online retailing important for businesses today and what are the benefits?

The reason why I’m interested in this topic is because I plan to launch my own business and was researching on the methods that made other familiar businesses successful also as why others weren’t. Due to the growth of social media and technology in our generation I wanted to see how important social media is for a business success, specifically the fashion industry. This is a topic I’ve come across in my marketing class and also while searching for what topic to research for this annotated bibliography, it was the one that intrigued me the most. As there are a lot of successful businesses that aren’t using social media to promote themselves such as Primark but are they as successful as the one who are online and using social media Or have they dropped down?

In this research I expect to find the benefits of social media/ online retailing and how it can increase and plays a part in a business success as much as why it is better than other traditional methods that were used before the growth of social media and online retail, and a clear example of business who have been more successful due to social media and being online also how beneficial it is specially considering the pandemic we are still going on.

If I find answer that does not match my hypothesis while doing my research, I will firstly reevaluate the answers I’ve found and do further research then re-evaluate my question as well as re-write it then lastly if that doesn’t work out I’ll explain how it contradicts my hypothesis and add the new information I’ve found and write a new hypothesis taking into consideration the new information I’ve found.

Social media marketing

Newberry, C. (2021, January 12). “23 Benefits of Social Media for Business”. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

This article was written by Christine Newberry, it states “23 Benefits of Social Media for Business” which is also the title, this supports my hypothesis and gave me the answer I was looking for as it’s basically persuasive and gives people 23 reasons to choose social media for their businesses. The first benefit mentioned is “Increase brand awareness” and this is the biggest advantage a company using online marketing could have on a business who is not using social media as they would gets 2x exposure, this article also states that “60 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform.” This is entirely true social media has become very influential specially for most of us young adults. It is the number one source of research and buying decisions specially for products like clothing and shoes.

Another good point that was said in this article was “Social media posts and ads are key ways to drive traffic to your website.” This again supports my hypothesis that using social media marketing overall can increase website traffic just by posting content on social media which is at the same time promoting your brand and product as well as every now and then doing ads which you can modify to reach your target audience.

The importance of social media today.

Smith, K. (2021, March 9). The Importance of Social Media in Business for Entrepreneurial Success. Digital Marketing Blog. https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-social-media-business/

This source was written recently and it perfectly explains the importance of social media and how it contributes to a company’s success. First starting with the statement that social media “ It’s booming like never before.” At this point we all know that the majority of people are using social media or are familiar with it, as this has become a number 1 source for everything whether it’s for jobs to meeting new friends to simply posting yourself. This source states that “71% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to others if they have a positive experience with it on social media.” I find this statement to be true not only because it was from an infographic but also because I myself and many other people are like this when we are checking out a company, we like to see from their reviews to social media status as that’s where we get more information from and better understanding of the brand.social media allows you connect better with your customers as much as growth,as it helps your other potential customers see your customer service, look through your brand and products easily and more thoroughly.

Online retailing/ e-commerce

Hudson, M. (2018, December 26). “What Are the Pros and Cons of eCommerce and Selling Online?” The Balance Small Business. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/selling-online-retailing-storefront-alternatives-2890252

This online article was written by Matthew Hudson, it states “ the pros and cons of e-commerce” the first 4 paragraphs supports my hypothesis as to the advantages of putting your business online , overall it bring you more profits as it allows you to be open 24 hours a day and have access to a wider range of customers geographically as the internet is international aso allows your product to be bought from anywhere especially now with COVID 19 ,this a choice a lot of business should consider as many people preferences has switched to online shopping.

In this article it also speaks about “ Disadvantages of Selling Online” such as security issues due to it being a globally accessible platform ,there might be risk and some cost to keep it secure and this applies to everything online but that still doesn’t override the advantages as technology is getting more updated and secure by the days and it’s definitely not as expensive as running a store in fact it’s small monthly fee which most companies are comfortable paying and it’s worth it.

Why should you use social media for your business ?

Popovic, K. (2015, May 13). 7 Reasons You Should Not Use Social Media For Business. Online Marketing Institute. https://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/blog/2015/05/7-reasons-you-should-not-use-social-media-for-business/

This particular article mostly contradicts my hypothesis as it encourages people not to use online marketing / social media for their business by giving 7 reasons , the first reason of this audience is that “ Your audience isn’t there.” This might be slightly true but using social media boosts up your chances of finding and reaching more customers with social media than without, as it opens up a wide international platform with every type of customer.I would say your audience is most likely there just need to find the right platform and strategy. This brings us to their next reason “Social media doesn’t work for every business.” which I definitely agree with social media marketing might not work for every type of business specially among does who aren’t selling products or who target audience is older people however companies who sell services can definitely make it work such as nails services spa and more simply by posting your work and promoting your services and could even gain international customers such as people who are go on holidays often look online or on social media platforms and if your business happens to be the perfect match then there goes your first international customer as well if your content goes viral online you will gain a lot of customers especially with new platforms such as TikTok.

Another reason was “Social media is not free” most marketing strategies aren’t free and online might be one of the cheapest ways of marketing besides social media is free such as Instagram and Facebook these are platforms with millions of people who could be your potential buyers.

Also this article is from 2015 were social media wasn’t as popular so their data is based on a whole different time were technology wasn’t so updated and the current pandemic isn’t taken into consideration but the reason why I chose to use because this articles because it was popular and came up few times during my research.

Conclusion

Although I learnt that social media might not be for all business however most of my finding supported my hypothesis and answered my questions ,social media definitely has very strong presence in this modern day and it’s a easier and effective way for business to grow, it’s important for companies to take this into consideration especially with the current pandemic going on, as even though I found some articles who mostly contradicted my hypothesis, they were from a different time and taking in that technology updates every year and new method come to light everyday even I might have a different hypothesis by next year but as of right now knowledge and information it’s clear that social media and online retailing it’s important for business today.

Unit 3 Revision :

For unit 3 I didn’t really change any major things as I didn’t really have a lot of time except for changing it up some visual ideas I had for brochure and made it bit more a simple and also added bit more information about the brochure itself based on the teachers feedback , If I had more time I would’ve had a more information or more information and emphasizing how it reaches my audience best.

UNIT 3 – Genre

Before I began this project I did some research on what type of genre was used for my topic related topics while taking into consideration the accessibility and the time consumption of it , the topic being the importance of social media and online retail today which I did a research on and find out that was really effective in a business growth and how more businesses need to use this method or includes method in their marketing plans as it is is a easier cheaper and efficient way than other marketing methods

The reason why I chose this topic and genre is due to my interest in business as social media has grown immensely these past few years and I believe it’s important to communicate that with businesses and upcoming entrepreneurs that aren’t aware of how much of an impact online retailing / social media has in the successfulness of a company specially today or business owners that are struggling to further success . Also I did a lot of research on the best way to communicate information to business, looked at some examples and find the most convenient way was by e-booklet or brochure as most business owners don’t have lot of time and they need something quick ,easy specially since this is a idea thats being presented to them.

For the background of the booklet/Brochure I decided to use simple business related pictures mixed with a bit of digital marketing and success pictures to relate it to the outcome if the step in the process is followed, I also tried keeping the colors simple that were more on the brighter side to give it off happy and excited energy touch while also keeping simple and professional as this is related to social media and business and community’s picture was added on the front page to give off the idea of business connecting with customers and I decided to make a brochure form inside of a booklet as this was the best way I could fit all the information.

The purpose of making this project is to help business to find more efficient not money consuming ways to succeed , I chose to make a booklet/brochure because I felt like is the one that best fits my audience considering that my audience is business owners and entrepreneurs I believe the e-book/brochure would be more convenient to them and less time consuming, this a good way to present my idea as I could use colors, choice of words ,and persuading methods that would keep my audience interested and even convince them to try it out.

Distribution wise I originally thought getting distributed into the stores but then I thought more about it and found that it will be more effective if I sent it to the marketing department as if the idea is validated by the owner is the marketing department that would execute it this is for larger companies , for a smaller companies who do not have marketing department it would be sent straight to them or physically sent to them.

While doing the project I first started looking at examples for some inspiration on how to make it look professional, what colors should I use . My original idea was a brochure but I started seeing booklets and thought out of booklet or brochure form which would be more effective and which one would could contain more information at the same time keeping it simple so I tried both and ended up choosing to do both combined because I was really stressing myself on which one to do as a brochure looked more simple but a booklet looked more informative also I was choosing between which editing apps to use watched some YouTube videos to see which apps are best for this project then ended going with Canva as I’ve used the app before and seems to get the work done.

Now that it’s done the booklet/brochure actually turned out good, I didn’t really do anything different from what I said before I actually enjoyed putting all together , I would say the only part that I found a bit long would be writing the information down which is the main reason of this project but I’m more of a creative person, only thing I would change differently it’s given myself more time and spreaded through the week instead of last minute.

My happiest hour of this whole project was definitely doing the booklet/brochure cover and editing it , I also did enjoy doing the research and putting all my ideas together. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to be honest. I wouldn’t mind another college project like this after all I did find some tools and articles that I’ll definitely be using for future projects and making the booklet/brochure helped me better my skills in graphic designing so that’s a bonus.