Imagination and creativity are authentic tools of humanity that enable us to innovate, bring about revolution, and proceed through evolution. Inspiration serves as a catalyst for these tools, but there is a thin line between inspiration and blatant plagiarism. This line is becoming increasingly blurred, and therefore, I strongly believe that in today's Supertech era, not only is human originality inspired by the internet, but it is also blatantly plagiarised and compromised on privacy.
Albert Einstein said, "It is becoming blatantly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." This held true in his time and holds even more true today. It is so much easier to compromise our ethics anonymously, hiding behind a screen. To think that we live in a world where people actively disrespect the ownership of someone’s intellectual property is a disgrace to our supposedly compassionate humanity.
A study was recently conducted by the Academic Research Guide Association. It concluded that 97% of college students who have cheated have not been caught and that 54% believe that cheating is acceptable and even necessary to stay in the competition. This is the mindset that is being established in youth today due to the easy accessibility of technology, which aids such deceptive methods. The pressure that we all feel to be good enough and perfect is cruelly monetized by artificially intelligent platforms that cater to students and their demerits. Is this the new world that we want to live in?
Plagiarism may be punished when caught, but what about when it is small-scale? What is the impact when it goes unpunished? It plays a negative role for two individuals: the victim is left with a sense of injustice, and the offender unknowingly shatters an opportunity to develop their own analytical thinking. When will we become original thinkers if we continue to auto-generate ideas from chat GPT? Even when plagiarism is large-scale and caught, the lawsuits are exorbitantly expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, Patent troll lawsuits have increased by 500% in the last decade. What a waste of precious resources!
Furthermore, technology leaves all of our data at risk. The new tagline for Apple is "Privacy. That's Iphone." When a multinational company's advertisement campaign revolves around its ability to ensure a simple fundamental right like privacy, it becomes apparent that times are desperate and that our data is not sufficiently protected. This unprotected data is used to administer customised addictive algorithms, thus enabling a continued sinister breach of privacy.
Thus I conclude by saying, Technology must be regulated by ethics during all stages of its development; we must not forget humanity and always respect the privacy and property of others.
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