Editor’s Note: This is a  staff column. The opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.

Users today face a new and evolving set of challenges daily. Existential threats from emerging technologies like ubiquitous artificial intelligence overreach, increasingly prevalent digital surveillance, and selective censorship consciously and unconsciously affect American citizens every day. Users should not be forced to jump through hoops and avoid pitfalls intentionally laid out before them, but technological corporations continually find new ways to strip them of their rights and challenge them in new ways. Big Tech needs to take more responsibility for how its services affect users, but tech leaders seem to be using users to their own ends. Users should take steps to avoid being taken advantage of and to remain vigilant in the face of Big Tech.

The tech industry is controlled by a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals and CEOs who wield a tremendous amount of consolidated power. Because emerging technologies have such a ubiquitous reach into the lives of users, they grant these Big Tech oligarchs increasing influence over digital spaces, the economy, and even politics. They fund the campaigns of elected officials, benefit from public subsidies, and algorithmically censor dissenting opinions. 

Much of this power stems from the fact that emerging technologies widely outpace regulatory efforts since nothing like current AI systems has ever existed on earth. These top tech moguls set the precedent for their own industry, representing a massive conflict of interest. 

This begs the question: are technologies the problem? Or is the greater threat the elite few who shape them? Users should be able to differentiate between tech problems and political problems. A widespread concern about AI is the potential for job displacement. Take the tech out of the issue. AI has the potential to impact the job market on a much greater scale, but systems that reduce the need for human labor already exist. 

Take, for example, self checkout lines, industrial machinery and streaming services, all of which have reduced the need for human labor. The issue is not just the tech, but rather how it is handled. AI is an incredible human achievement with great potential, but it also has the pitfalls to destroy us. On one end of the spectrum is a protectionist nation that stifles innovation in the name of safety. On the other is a dehumanizing superculture that exploits its users for the sake of greater profit and scale.

This will be my final column, but the challenges users face are continual and will only become more complex as these technologies evolve. The purpose of End User has ultimately been to better inform users to navigate these challenges. The first step to solving the issue is to acknowledge its existence. Users must continue to resist the invasive influence of Big Tech by minimizing the personal data they share online, finding small ways to disconnect through daily life and to continue to learn the potentials and pitfalls of emerging technologies. Despite facing an exploitative system, users should not resign themselves to being taken advantage of.