- 4 months ago
Innovation comes with a price! Join us as we explore the technological breakthroughs that have sparked major controversy and public outcry. From gene editing tools in your home to AI that can perfectly fake your face, these are the inventions pushing ethical boundaries and causing governments worldwide to hit the panic button.
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00:00Totally awesome or totally frightening. Look at this.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for new technological innovations that have attracted controversy.
00:10On the one hand, you do sort of get the feeling you're being watched.
00:14But on the other hand, it does help us learn, and that's the main reason we're here.
00:18Overall, the pros outweigh the cons.
00:21Number 10. DIY CRISPR gene editing hacks.
00:24Sometimes I still am afraid, but it's not a fear of, like, something bad happening necessarily.
00:33It's more of a fear that, like, you can't control it.
00:37CRISPR is a scientific breakthrough for which Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuel Charpentier won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry,
00:44and it has an incredible amount of promising potential.
00:46Within the last decade, DIY kits have allowed people to administer CRISPR technology as a form of gene therapy or biohacking.
00:53Instead of breaking into and manipulating computer systems like typical hackers,
00:57they're focused on hacking living organisms with the hopes of curing illness and, in some cases, obtaining superhuman powers.
01:04Concerned that these kits could be misused by people who aren't medical professionals,
01:08the FDA has warned Americans against using these kits and have made them illegal for sale in the United States.
01:14The importing of DIY kits has been banned in Germany,
01:17and governments have publicly advocated that such gene editing techniques should be left to the experts.
01:22Using one of the inoculation loops, we're going to gently spread the bacteria about the plate,
01:27let it dry for 10 minutes, put condensation.
01:29Okay, same deal.
01:29Same deal, yeah.
01:30Number nine, generative AI.
01:32Who is Leslie Stahl.
01:37So it gives you some...
01:38Oh my god, it's wrong.
01:40Oh, is it?
01:40It's totally wrong.
01:42Not to be confused with artificial general intelligence,
01:45generative AI can produce words or images by identifying existing patterns.
01:48Tech companies have been breaking ground in the last couple of years with this type of AI,
01:52such as OpenAI with ChatGPT.
01:55Businesses see opportunities for automation and efficiency,
01:58but several people have met generative AI with resentment.
02:00If you look at the peak demand during the summertime,
02:03if the data centers don't reduce their load, there could be a blackout.
02:07Critics have worried about its effects on the labor market,
02:09and there are also concerns about its extensive use of water and electricity.
02:13There have been several debates about the merits of art and the verbal content created by this AI.
02:17Regardless of what people think, it looks like generative AI is here to stay
02:21until it's replaced by something more powerful.
02:23A lot of the AI companies really heavily lean into the term publicly available
02:29to justify how they got their training data.
02:35But anyone who produces content would tell you
02:38just because you see an image online doesn't give you license to use the image.
02:42Number eight, genetically modified mosquitoes.
02:47Hoping to cut down on mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever,
02:56scientists at the British company Oxitec have developed genetically modified mosquitoes.
03:01The genetically modified mosquitoes mate with the females and spread their affected genes.
03:05As a result, their offspring are unable to reproduce because they're compromised,
03:08thus cutting down on the number of mosquitoes that can infect humans.
03:11You're changing their genes.
03:13We're giving them one extra gene, in this case, or a small package of genes that do things, yeah.
03:19Such technology has life-saving potential and has been adopted in countries like Brazil.
03:23However, critics who see potential side effects have concerns about ethics and unintended consequences.
03:29It sounds like we could be veering into Jurassic Park territory.
03:31As we go driving through the area, every time the app beeps, we just open one of the spots in here,
03:41and the mosquitoes will fly around and do their job.
03:44Number seven, self-disseminating vaccines.
03:46One question puzzling scientists is how to administer a vaccination among a wildlife population.
03:51One approach that has recently been cultivated is self-disseminating vaccines,
03:55where animals in captivity are infected with the disease and sent out into the wild.
03:59The infected animals would act as vectors, spreading the disease to other animals
04:03and ideally giving the overall population immunity.
04:05Some scientists are hopeful that such vaccines could be used to prevent zoonotic diseases
04:10that could cause the next pandemic.
04:12However, many in the scientific community have been skeptical of the effectiveness of this method,
04:16along with raising ethics concerns.
04:18Number six, neural enhancement chips.
04:20Fully implantable.
04:21It is battery-powered.
04:22It is wireless.
04:24All of this is being done over Bluetooth protocol.
04:26Neuralink, a company co-founded by Elon Musk, is experimenting with this type of technology.
04:31Among the applications of these chips,
04:33Musk hopes to connect people that have paralysis to computers
04:36and allow them to move and communicate with their minds
04:38and potentially restore eyesight to blind people.
04:41The device is designed to interpret your neural activity
04:44so you can operate a computer or a smartphone by simply thinking about moving.
04:50No wires or physical movement are required.
04:53However, this technology has not been without controversy.
04:55In setting up experiments, Neuralink has been accused of euthanizing a dozen monkeys,
05:00which is something that Musk has denied.
05:02There has also been concern about potential policies
05:04mandating these kinds of chips in the workplace or by the government in everyday life,
05:08with some states moving to ban such practices.
05:10Neuralink is not the only company working on this technology.
05:14Several others are also testing their BCIs in paralyzed volunteers.
05:18Noland now joins that small group as Neuralink's first patient.
05:22Number five, face recognition technology in public spaces.
05:25Once a recurring pattern is learned, actions may be programmed based on that pattern.
05:31Sample actions include detecting faces, transcribing conversations,
05:37calling reinforcements, or looking up a license plate.
05:40This kind of technology comes in many forms, and you've no doubt come across it,
05:44such as when you unlock your phone or go through airport security.
05:47Critics point to concerns over privacy,
05:49while others are concerned over inaccuracies and racial bias,
05:52as it often fails to recognize black faces.
05:54People that were later found innocent have gone to jail
06:05because of being wrongly identified by facial recognition.
06:08Several cities and countries have enacted or are planning to enact policies
06:12to heavy regulate facial recognition technology,
06:14if not outright ban it.
06:16To train the software, the researchers also use photos of faces
06:19with clearly defined expressions.
06:22Their system for analyzing emotions can detect anger, joy, rage, and grief in real time.
06:28But what can it be used for?
06:30Number four, certain gene editing technologies, germline editing.
06:33If gene editing was done in embryos,
06:37then any DNA changes would pass down the generations.
06:40The hot issue at this meeting is whether scientists should even be allowed
06:45to do research to modify the genes of embryos.
06:49Germline editing refers to the editing of germ cells,
06:51cells that develop into eggs and sperm,
06:53with the hope of changing the DNA of humans
06:55to make them immune from certain diseases.
06:57The process is so controversial that it is banned in clinical settings
07:00in several countries, including China, the United States, and the European Union.
07:04One safety concern is the unintended effects of modifying germline cells,
07:08which are referred to as off-target effects.
07:10It's an evolution of, you know, pre-implantation genomics.
07:14We have selective abortion.
07:15We're already choosing potential for genetic disorders, etc.
07:18It's just one next step.
07:20Then just maybe being able to tailor those genomes for certain traits.
07:24Another concern is mosaicism,
07:26where genetically edited cells and unedited cells
07:29could disrupt treatment and result in unwanted health conditions.
07:32The World Health Organization is working on a set of rules
07:35that can make germline editing a more acceptable process for concerned countries.
07:39We need to figure out how to balance the risks and potential rewards of gene editing,
07:44which is going to be tricky,
07:45because everything that's being done tends to get mixed together.
07:48Meticulous, professional scientists with freewheeling biohackers like this guy.
07:53Number three, 3D-printed ghost guns.
07:55All right, Rob, it's day two.
07:58It's been about 18 hours of printing later,
08:01and we have what looks more or less like the frame of a gun.
08:04Nowadays, 3D printers are able to manufacture parts for ghost guns,
08:08which are firearms that don't have a serial number to identify them.
08:11Because ghost guns are untraceable,
08:13they are commonly used by criminals who can assemble them in their own homes.
08:16One high-profile use of a 3D-printed ghost gun
08:19was the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.
08:23Kalina says these are dangerous for those with bad intentions,
08:26because you can just order the parts online in a kit and build it at home.
08:30State lawmakers tried to pass a bill banning manufacturing a gun at your home,
08:34but it failed in 2022.
08:36Because of safety concerns related to easy access,
08:39several states in the U.S. have passed laws banning either ghost guns,
08:433D-printed guns, or both.
08:44What's happening now, people are experimenting on different things.
08:48That makes this trend even more ominous.
08:51It allows them to...
08:52With some criminals, Larry says,
08:54finding ways to 3D-print metal parts that would normally need to be purchased.
08:592. Killer Robots
09:00With the advancement of artificial intelligence,
09:06we are reaching an age of killer robots in warfare.
09:09Several countries, such as Bolivia,
09:11are concerned with the absence of human control
09:13over potentially deadly weapons.
09:15More than 30 nations and groups,
09:17such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
09:19have called on the United Nations and the Convention on Conventional Weapons
09:23to come up with international policy to ban such weaponry,
09:26or at least heavily regulate it.
09:28Some critics of this technology have said,
09:29why try to make it look like humans?
09:32After all, they could be any shape at all.
09:35Well, proponents of the technology say that
09:37it's to make it easier for them to fit into an environment already built for human beings.
09:45However, several countries, such as Russia and the United States,
09:48have no desire to slow down the development of such a powerful tool.
09:51Before we continue,
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10:091. AI Deepfake Technology
10:14So the software is pinning my eyes and my mouth to the center of the frame
10:18so that it's easier to align with J-Lo's face.
10:23While many deepfake videos have been a source of entertainment,
10:25such technology has disturbing implications in areas such as identity theft and national security risks.
10:31It is all too easy for bad actors to use deepfakes to spread misinformation,
10:35further making it difficult for us to separate fact from fiction.
10:38There's been this huge explosion of like,
10:40oh my goodness, we can't trust anything.
10:43Yes, deepfakes are eerily dystopian
10:46and they're only going to get more realistic and cheaper to make.
10:49Several countries have taken steps to combat the negative effects of deepfakes,
10:53such as South Korea banning the technology's use within 90 days of an election.
10:57In 2025, the United States enacted legislation
11:00that criminalized the use of deepfakes in revenge porn.
11:03This is what I'm talking about.
11:04It fooled you and I'm being serial,
11:06but you don't even know what's real and what isn't.
11:09That's the problem with deepfakes.
11:11That's why we all have to take it serial.
11:14Which of these inventions do you have a strong opinion on?
11:17Let us know in the comments.
11:18Now, with a technology called deepfake,
11:21you can get screwed over and lied to in ways never before possible.
11:25ganz cool.
11:31Let's do it.
11:32Let's do it.
11:33Let's go.
11:35Let's do it.
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