I’ve been running down the rabbit hole and am convinced that smartphones and cloud storage apps with machine learning algorithms are a pretty bad idea.
Machine learning algorithms learn our faces, analyze the content of our photos, hoover up our metadata embedded into the file including the location it was taken. Cloud providers offer very little transparency about how this data is used, and don’t let us opt out.
Algorithms today are highly efficient, but not that smart. Even where they are now, these algorithms are dangerous, being exposed to them results in being subjected to information bubbles where reality becomes uncannily personalized to our interests. Algorithms expose us to misinformation, and are used to give us a one sided view of science, politics, and other important issues.
Over the next decade, these algorithms will likely begin to display a degree of intelligence. I think algorithms have already been “weaponized” to a degree and we see the evidence around us. Anyone not in our same “bubble” of information doesn’t just seem foolish or goofy but mentally ill.
I can’t stop the rise of AI, but I don’t have to feed it. I’m cutting back on app and smartphone usage, and pulling data off devices that “learn” about my data. I’ve gotten rid of my apple watch, sleep tracker, started carrying a dumb phone, and disabling radios on my devices when I need to carry them.
To further reduce my exposure, I installed Jellyfin on my PC. Jellyfin is designed for streaming movies and shows from your own PC to a TV of tablet, but can handle photos as well. It’s easy to install on windows and easy to connect to using a mobile app. Since my ISP issues a dynamic ip address, I’m not able to connect to it easily from outside of my network which is nice from a security prospective although I don’t plan to keep any sensitive photos in here.
It’s buggy, but it gets the job done. Jellyfin doesn’t have any way to memorize who is in my photos, automatically generate hashtags, or map where my photos were taken. It lets me look at my photos and download them if I want and that’s it.
It’s Not Just About Your Data
Machine Learning Algorithms are not just observing us. They use what they learn to predict our behavior and inject information into our feeds that they think will influence us. I try not spend too much time on any personalized services including social media apps and news sites.
I now have 1 box running 4 apps that serve media:
1. Plex – Movies, Shows, and Music
2. Calibre – Epubs and Pdfs
3. Kiwix – Websites including Wikipedia
4. Jellyfin – Photos
These services I run locally replace: Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Paramount+, Disney+, Peacock, Max, and Starz, Amazon books, audible, Apple Music / Spotify, and Apple iCloud Photos / Google Photos.
Plex does have some suggested features, like movies and shows streaming from their servers, or movies similar to ones I watched, but for the most part it can just choose from stuff I already have.
There are some tradeoffs, sure, like having to have space and keep a pc powered on and up to date and when things break, I have to figure out how to fix it.
The other services don’t make any suggestions at all.
Plex is amazing for content and doesn’t need much help. K and I usually find ourselves watching old movies from the 1930s – 1960s instead of newer content which always seems to have woke content these days that puts an emphasis on inclusion rather than on good story telling.
Calibre and Kiwix are also so far no hassle to run. Jellyfin is just not as nice or as refined of an interface but it’s free, open source, and isn’t scraping my data, building ad profiles, or selling my attention.