Experiences and thoughts about digitalisation
I was born in the year 1996, which means I have grown up during the “age of digitalisation”. In my lifetime, technology has made huge advances and different technological devices and services have become an integral part of every day life for most people. I have been interested in technology ever since I was a child. I got my first own laptop at the age of 10 and even before that I used the family pc to play video games and to browse the internet.
My field of work is IT. I am currently unemployed, but I used to work as a Systems Specialist for a few years after graduating from Oulu University of Applied Sciences with a BBA in business information systems. I am currently studying a master’s degree to become a specialist of digitalisation in social services and healthcare.
I haven’t personally worked in the healthcare field, but during these studies I have been learning about the digitalisation of healthcare systems and all the benefits, changes and possible negative effects it has on the field as a whole. Digitalisation has changed healthcare drastically for both the patients and the professionals. Benefits of digitalisation in the healthcare field include easier documentation (e-recipes, records of doctors visits etc.), remote doctors visits and online chats with healthcare professionals, easier and more efficient data processing, robotics and many other things. There are also negative sides to some aspects of digitalisation, such as new kinds of security threats and the lack of skills to use digital services (both patients and professionals).
Overall I personally think the digitalisation of the healthcare field seems to be more of a positive change than a negative one. Some healthcare professionals might have a different opinion, since they have hands on experience on how digitalisation has changed the field and how it has affected their work as professionals. Also it is easy for me as a patient or a customer to navigate digital services like OmaKanta and use chat features etc. but for some elderly people it might be difficult or even impossible. When developing digital services I think it is really important to make sure that they’re accessible to all kinds of people.
Risks of digitalisation
The biggest risks concerning digitalisation are security related. Depending on cloud services and different digital systems to store personal information can be risky if the processes are not done with information security in mind. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was a huge step into the right direction, since protecting citizens personal data is very important and it needs to be regulated. GDPR obligates businesses that handle personal data of EU citizens to follow regulations on how, when and why they can use this data. It also gives people the option to know if a business has data on them, why are they collecting it and what is the data used for. People can also ask for the data to be corrected, changed or removed. I don’t have any work related experiences on the positive or negative effects of GDPR. In my personal life, the only “negative” thing I can think of is that every time I visit a website I have not visited before, I have to either allow or deny the collection of cookies, which is actually also a positive thing even if slightly annoying. One of the core principles of GDPR is consent and that people have to understand what they are agreeing to. That’s why websites ask for consent to use cookies and also explain briefly why they are collecting them.
About ChatGPT
I have never used ChatGPT or other generative AI products in my personal life or working life. I actually have consciously avoided using generative AI as much as I can. There are 2 main reasons for this decision: ethical and environmental reasons.
I find generative AI very unethical, because it collects and uses data and images that it sourced online without permission. AI providers do not care about CC licences or other copyrights when training the AI engine. I personally know artists who don’t want to post their art to their social media pages anymore because they’re afraid their art will be stolen by AI. The second reason is environmental reasons. The data centers of generative AI’s use a huge amount of electricity and water. Some sources say one query on a generative AI platform uses ten times the energy compared to a regular Google search.
I think that using AI is important in some fields, for example in the healthcare field, using AI to handle large amounts of data for research and development. When used correctly, AI can be a huge help and advantage in these types of projects. However I think that generative AI should not be available for everyone and there should be a lot more regulations on the use of it. I think AI should be available to use for research, scientifical developments and similar projects that better the lives of people. It should not be a tool for people to create “funny” pictures, do their homework for them or ask questions that could be typed in to a regular search engine (that might also give more reliable information than the AI).
Self evaluation
Most of the topics in the materials were already somewhat familiar to me, actually just last night I wrote some slides on a PowerPoint group presentation about GDPR! But it was nice to get a refresher on some of the topics and listen to knowledgeable people talk about things they’re passionate about. I am very interested in all things to do with cybersecurity, so I especially enjoyed Andy Yen’s and James Lyne’s Ted Talks. I would love to see them make similar Ted Talks now in the year 2025 and to see if and how things have changed, since these Ted Talks are 10 years old already. Writing the ChatGPT portion of the assignment made me think about how much the use of AI is “normalised” in a lot of digital services we all use. It makes me worried and I would love to see more awareness about the negative sides of AI in the future, especially if the topic comes up in education and different courses during my studies.
I commented on the following blogs:
https://blogi.savonia.fi/hetak/digi-society/
For future readers:
Unfortunately I had to close the comments because of a spam attack, I got almost 70 emails about unapproved comments waiting for moderation and they were all spam… 😀
Hi Viivi!
You write expertly about digitalization of the health care sector. I might think you are working in this field! I have a long experience in the social and health care sector, and I agree with you about the benefits and harms of digitalization. I also appreciate your opinion on the use of artificial intelligent. You brought up ethical and environmental aspects boldly.
Hi! It was really interesting to read your text. You’ve clearly familiarized yourself with the topic both in your personal life and through your studies and work. I work in the healthcare sector myself, and digitalisation is an inevitable development in the field. In my opinion, it’s mostly a good thing. Of course, as you mentioned, it does cause problems especially for the older population. I didn’t know that AI consumes so much more energy compared to a regular Google search. I understand your cautious attitude toward artificial intelligence.