Agency is the relationship shared between enactments of humans and technology. This keyword can be exemplified while performing a search online. When typing in something to an online platform like Google, technology then reacts off of what the person has written to create the results that appear on their screen. Based on Tuesday’s class discussion, we often feel as though our search results are often being targeted towards us. As college students, search engines will alter results based on our location. The technology notices that its user has been on a college campus for a long time and comes to the conclusion that they are a student, thus giving its user results that appeal to academics. Nevertheless, agency does not work with technology alone. Technology is reliant on humans, creating a relationship where the user puts in information and the technology absorbs it to create a more personalized response that matches its user.
Agency: Mary Margaret Clouse
Agency reminds me a lot of our readings and discussions surrounding data in that agency is largely related to what an algorithm knows about the user (as provided by data) and then agency is determined based on this. Noessel mentioned how agents would ensure that “Your interests find you” which makes me question then how much of one’s interests would be self-determined. How much are they now? I’m sure that agents built into apps like Spotify have suggested music to me, which has likely led to my discovery of some of my favorite artists, but what happens when these agents reinforce danger or violence online? The Noessel article suggests a very positive quality to the influence of agents, focusing on how they will make life easier. However, I cannot help but fear the lack of autonomy that may come with self-driving cars, algorithms catered to one’s interests, etc. I feel that this may decrease the scope of our skills and knowledge. Will there one day be teenagers who don’t have to learn how to drive? As convenient as it sounds, this increased focus on making things easier can become quite dangerous.
Alvin – Agency
The term “agency” has an aspect of mutualistic relationship between humans and technology for a shared interest of enhanced performance. Technological performance is very much reliant on human input and through an agency lens, these technologies have been modified to assist or simplify commands implemented by humans. On the positive side, agency provides a less time consuming element into the system for example an online search providing a user with suggestions based off a well revised history of searches and embedding other forms of collected data like location, time, age, sex and a variety of other factors. All these factors will provide the technology the necessary information needed to enhance and minimise options so as to suit the user’s requirements. On the other hand, the concept of agency contradicts important notions like privacy since the interchange between humans and technology may involve involuntary data collection. Reliance on agency can be a double edged sword by positively enhancing technological performance but negatively limiting human imagination and creativity due to laziness. I think that awareness about the role of agency in the human-technological relationship is fundamental in understanding how much technology has advanced over the years.
JT Windle – Agency
Agency is a persons individuality, the ability to make decisions and be aware of their outcomes, especially online. In recent years, computer technology has become advanced enough to assist us in making these decisions. One example given in the reading is Google’s autocomplete feature when using the search bar. With this feature, the Google algorithm can use previous search patterns and popular national patterns to help users complete a search before they have even finished typing it in. This is a perfect example of agency because it is essentially humans and technology working together to make a decision or action. Data and agency are very closely related. My example from the data keyword response (voice assistant listening software) also applies here. Voice recognition technology like Siri or Alexa can hear what you are saying even when you are not actively using the feature. Because of this, when I mentioned watches for example, all that appeared on my social media ad space were watch company ads. Here too, technology was attempting to assist me in making a decision to purchase something that it thought I might like. Understanding agency is extremely important to understanding how humans interact with technology in the modern era.
Agency-Zoey Zeng
Nowadays, agency is everywhere in our life. Agency and people are interdependent. Agency rely on the information people search for, and people need agencies to help them achieve their goals in a short time. That is why many applications today have personalized services. As the reading Designing Agentive Technology: Al that works for people mentioned, “you can even say that an agent is the ultimate expression of goal-focused design thinking because it gets users to their goals with the least effort possible.” For example, when we want to buy clothes from amazon, we just need to type the keyword. Then the searching agency will help you to find the one you like according to the data it collects from your search records. Also, like much listening software has personalized services. It will recommend you new pieces of music every day according to the music you download and your personal collections. Agency is like people’s subconscious minds. It helps us with our goals in our lives but minimizes the effort it takes to get there. However, I think agency also will let people’s ability to proactively search for information. Since they also prepare all information for people, people may develop a dependency on them. However, with the development of technology and agencies, they have already become part of our life. Therefore, It is important for us to use agencies appropriately.
Marielle Dibbini: Agency
Agency is the connection between humans and technology. This word connects to the meaning of autonomy, or the quality of being aware and the ability to make decisions. Today, we all must make decisions based on our interpretation of our surrounding environment. In class, we were able to see agency and algorithms through google searches. When we search something up on google, we are interacting with many different things, meanwhile google is calculating the results of our search. This shows how both human beings and technology must work together in order to find valuable information. After some searches, google starts to get an idea of our likes and dislikes. This allows for google to mostly show us things we are interested in since they have learned about us through our previous google searches. This can be seen on social media apps as well, such as our Tik Tok for you page or our Instagram explore page. Even though we have not personally asked these apps to show us certain things we enjoy watching or viewing, these media platforms are smart enough to know what we want to see.
Agency – Chloe Fandetti
Agency occurs when humans and technology work together. Technology thrives off of and depends on human interaction in order to gain information. One example of agency with technology and humans on a very basic level is google searches. The human has agency when they turn on their computer, click on safari, and type a word into the search engine. The moment that they hit enter, however, the human loses their agency. Technology decides which websites pop up first, whether it’s based on sponsorship, popularity, or incoming links. We blindlessly trust the top links to be the most reliable and factual. Even though the human clicks on the website, the choices in front of them, the order in which they appear, and the information they contain are influenced by technology and data. Humans do not have much agency over the media they consume, as almost everything is mediated and customized based on user data. It’s unsettling to think about how much control technology has on our lives, especially because many people do not realize that it’s happening.
Agency- Chloe Whelan
Agency, similar to autonomy, can be described as taking action to produce a certain outcome. Human agency is defined as an individual’s capacity to decipher meaning from their environment through consciousness, reflection and action. The concept of agency in reference to algorithms is similar, though different in execution. Agency in algorithmic processes is a complex concept, so understanding the shared agency between humans and machines requires taking “into account the combined activities of human and nonhuman entities.” Like the example we looked at in class, when we search something online, our agency is significantly less than that of the search algorithms used to produce our search results. When typing in a word, algorithmic processes use vast amounts of data to provide the user with the most relevant information to them. Numerous details are taken into account with algorithmic processes, such as your location, recent searches, popular searches, and information that is most relevant to you based on your prior search history and various other actions on the search engine. Although we’re the ones doing the searching, determining what information comes up is basically out of our control. Search results such as the websites that pop up, the order they come up in, and the information they provide, are all individualized to the user based on their data. This knowledge provided me with a deeper understanding about the mass amount of information that’s being tracked when we use the internet, and revealed how our ‘human agency’ is hardly relevant when it comes to algorithmic processes.
Agency – Grace Brogan
The reading on “Designing Agentive Technology: AI That Works for People”, describes the process of setting up an “agent” in the form of a Google alert. This alert allows the user to have the “agent” report back to them through email when a new item matching their predetermined search words appears. To me this interaction between the human counterpart and the AI “agent” helps me better understand agency as it feels like a human interaction. The interaction between the human and google alert “agent” reminds me of the only context I have encountered the word agent before; secret agent. To me the relationship between a human and their AI agent seems much like that of the relationship between a secret agent and their handler or case officer. Both have their own agency and the relationship is built on one reporting back information to the other. Agency is oartivulay interesting to consider in AI as traditionally agency has been a very human attribute. Although it seems that these agents are mainly human tools that require some human input, further AI agency seems to be the next step in the relationship between humans and technology. This progress continues to blur the line between what is human and what is a machine or technology.
Agency – Caroline Rowe
Agency is the interaction between technology and humans. Media thrives off of human interaction because it gives it more information about the user. When I think of agency at its most basic level I think of someone doing a google search. The human is interacting with technology by hitting “submit” and then Google does the rest by giving the user a multitude of results. I have seen agency in my own life when I am online shopping for a specific item. Recently, I was shopping for a pair of cowboy boots (a pretty specific item), and then a few days later as I was watching a video that had ads in it an ad for a cowboy boot brand came up. This is how the human and technology interact so that the technology can take some piece of information about you and use it to their advantage.