Opinion & Editorial

BY CHARLIE DARE

It is time to ask yourself: Is my likeness protected property?

If you have spent time on TikTok recently, it is likely that you too have scrutinized Tom Cruise’s sleight-ofhand for signs of life. What you and I saw was not an aging actor parlaying his fame into social media clout, but rather new, sophisticated, and largely unregulated artificial intelligence programming designed to deceive. This is what’s known as a “deepfake,” a type of synthetic media in which a person’s likeness is imitated by powerful machine learning algorithms.

Major production houses have been improving this kind of AI for years— it’s the sort of facial scanning that resurrected Audrey Hepburn for chocolate ads way back in 2013. But the process has advanced tenfold in ensuing years, and the doppelgangers it can produce are now nearly indistinguishable from reality.

Enter “deepfake” as your query into any major search engine and you’ll immediately learn the technology’s most popular implementation—celebrity porn videos.

Deep faking has also been utilized to influence international media, discredit politicians, and spread disinformation about COVID-19. Presently, the technology requires several hours of audio and video footage to produce an effective facsimile; that’s why celebrities and politicians are preferred targets.

However, it’s likely that its rapid advancement will allow seamless identity theft using just your Instagram feed.

Despite the formation of a G7backed Global Partnership on AI, the United States government has yet to endorse its policies, and there is no federal law prohibiting the creation or distribution of deepfakes, although several bills have been introduced in Congress.

It has been left largely to social media conglomerates to self-police content and introduce or enforce disinformation countermeasures, and their traffic-driven profit models ensure that no serious action will be taken to dismantle fraudulent accounts.

Artificial intelligence has serious potential for damage. Beyond the insidious specter of fake news, we are just beginning to see what a world full of AI looks like—transhumanism, fully automated workplaces, algorithm overlords, and self-driving cars. It appears our government historically prefers to implement regulation after disruptions have begun to wreak havoc on our social systems, but it is imperative that in this case, the United States Congress acts now.

A regulatory board must be established for Internet-based media and technology, staffed with former industry members and ethics and policy experts with a singular goal of protecting humanity. The stakes are too high to stand by.

BY RONNISHA GUNN

The sorrow and misery of Texans cannot be comprehended by us Californians as they undergo a power outage crisis from the result of two severe winter storms, leading families to very dangerous living conditions. Texas was somewhere I was considering soon visiting because of the distant family I have residing there waiting to meet my daughter. But the thought of not having electricity or water upon my arrival worries me.

Federal agencies sent out a warning 10 years ago that Texas needed to weatherize its power plants and grid. In all the time they had to fix the problem nothing was done about it. That enrages me. This crisis could easily have been avoided had people did their job.

Being the largest energy producing state in the country, individuals expected things to be under control briskly. Instead, nearly half the state faced power disruptions.

The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott is providing very few details about when individuals can go back to living a normal life, as if he doesn’t care. He doesn’t give full and honest responses in his press conferences which leads to me question his real motives.

As of February 28, 2021, the power is back, but millions of Texans worry about what it will take to fully retrieve the happy and healthy lifestyle they were previously used to living.

So many different emotions have overtaken us all. I am hoping Texans will pull through very soon.

BY ANGIE DELORENZO

Recently, a meme surfaced that called attention to the monetization of drinking water in Africa.

The photo featured an indigenous woman swiping an ATM card in exchange for the sanitized essential element of life. The caption below read, “Capitalism at Work.”

Missing from the slough of embittered and insightful comments is the fact that you, as an American citizen, also owe your access to drinkable water to capitalism.

You do not have access to clean water. Well, you do, if you have an address, a bank account and job to pay for each of these things. Your basic needs exist as a for-profit industry in what is called a “regulated monopoly.”

A regulated monopoly allows public officials to guarantee companies a monetary return on their infrastructure investments, while they fix prices for consumers. I think I can speak for all of us when I say the idea of public officials working on behalf of the people in concert with corporations is especially uncomfortable during this time of COVID-19.

Corporate profits soared while unemployment rates have reached record numbers. The divide has never been more apparent. How did the idea of controlling the most prominent ingredient of life in exchange for funds become so normalized? How have we come to accept a literal cost to survive?

In December of 2020, amid a global biological crisis, the stock market allowed for a new category: Water Futures. According to the Bloomberg report “Water joined gold, oil and other commodities traded on Wall Street, highlighting worries that the life-sustaining natural resource may become scarce across more of the world.”

So, while a large percentage of this country’s population struggles with financial insecurity during a pandemic, corporations have seized the opportunity to extract yet another natural resource for profit. This corporatization is completely endorsed by the United States government. Enjoy the free air while you can. This place is trash.

BY HANNAH COBURN

Pausing and rescheduling continue to stifle the colorful and vast music scene of Los Angeles. The closing of venues across the city was among the many loses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. With the unknown return of live entertainment, we patiently wait for the safe day when we can gather in a dark crowded room, swaying side to side to our favorite performers once again.

Los Angeles has always been associated with its exciting night life where you can always catch a show. But because of the social distancing guidelines, venues were forced to close up indefinitely. As a new alternative, online virtual concerts and live streams have become the safe show-going experience. However, there’s an important aspect missing, which is actually attending the show.

Waiting in a line for hours just to get your wristband, and then standing for an even longer period as you wait for Elton John or Megan Thee Stallion to come out on stage, only to continue standing as they preform for an additional four hours while your feet start falling asleep—all of that is the ultimate show experience! Of course, you can’t leave out the overpriced drinks and the potential fights that can break out. But this all becomes worth it when you take in the beauty of live music directly in front of you and make unforgettable memories.

Infamous venues like the Hollywood Bowl, the Troubadour, the Fonda, the Echo and Echoplex, the Wiltern, the Smell and my personal favorite El Cid all have pushed back their re-opening dates to the later months of June, August, and October. With the continued postponing we may not be able to attend shows safely until 2022. But with the city transferring from the purple to red tier, hopes remain high.

Many smaller venues face the reality of closing permanently, as the main income for live music venues comes from putting on shows for the community. A Silverlake venue and bar named the Satellite decided in early 2020 to no longer host live shows and become a restaurant.

According to the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), “Venues are losing 85-100% of their income due to the social gathering bans in place. We were the first to close and we’ll be the last to open.”

NIVA was able to get more than two million emails for congress to pass the Save our Stages Act. The act states, in part, “the Small Business Administration allows grants for eligible live venue operators, producers, promoters, or talent representatives to address the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain live venues.”

That may be helpful, but it is not a permanent solution. If venues continue to push back reopening and the grants, funding, and donations run out, we’ll be forced to say goodbye to the experience of live music.

Don’t let the music fade away. Support the live music scene of Los Angeles!

ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE KO

Los Angeles City College Visual & Media Arts Department 855 N. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029 323.953.4000 ext. 2832 losangeles.collegian@gmail.com

Co-Editors-in-Chief BEATRICE ALCALA, ANGELA JOHNSON

Graphics Layout Editor BEATRICE ALCALA

Copy Editor ANGELA JOHNSON

Managing Editor DIEGO CHAVEZ

Opinions & Editorial Editor ANGELA JOHNSON

Broadcast, Social Media Producers BEATRICE ALCALA, JAMES DUFFY V, DIEGO CHAVEZ CADENA

Photo Editor BEATRICE ALCALA

Photographers LOUIS WHITE, ALLIN ERIS, JONATHAN MONTES, FRANK MARTINEZ, GERARDO DE LOS SANTOS

Illustrators STEPHANIE KO

Designers BEATRICE ALCALA, JAMES DUFFY V

Reporters MATTHEW RODRIGUEZ, WHITNEY GIBSON, WILLIAM B. TORRES, HANNAH COBURN, RONNISHA GUNN, JONATHAN MONTES, SERINA HAYNES, JAMES DUFFY V, DELIA ROJAS, JUAN MENDOZA, ANGELA JOHNSON, TUPAC ZAPATA, ALLIN ERIS, KELIYAH WILLIAMS, JUSTIN DE LA CRUZ

Online Editor-in-Chief DIEGO CHAVEZ CADENA

Faculty Adviser RHONDA GUESS

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