After listening to and watching the two TED talks, I found the talk by Kenneth Cukier to be the more interesting of the two. I feel that his was more interesting, as he talked about big data as a whole, instead of only focusing on the social media aspect. One of the most interesting parts in his talk was when he addressed the idea of machine-learning. He gave an example of a scientist that taught a computer how to play chess, and then lost to it after it learned through algorithms and collection of data. The fact that a machine can learn something from a human, and then eventually do it better over time just through collection of data is remarkable. If we can continue to use this machine-learning properly, there are so many things we can improve in the world. While both talks agreed that there were many positives to big data, they both warned against the dangers and risks of misuse of it. Two questions that I would like to ask to find out more would be: 1)What other ways are the machine-learning technologies being applied or developed in our society? and 2) Would it ever be possible to to give consumers more control of their data back like Jennifer Golbeck talked about, or do companies already have too much control of it?
