Titles Available as of July 2022
This is a selective list of streaming video holdings in the American University Library. Streaming guides are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the library catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. For complete up-to-date streaming holdings, please refer to our streaming catalog.
DOCUMENTARIES
Access to Africa: Internet and Connectivity
Africa still is the continent with the most ‘white spots,’ places without internet or mobile phone signal, and this holds a great promise for Africans and for the global technology companies that aim to enlarge their markets. More than 80 percent of all African households have mobile phones and in some of the 54 countries on the continent half of that number are smartphones. This program observes how Africa is getting connected and features prominent experts examining these developments such as; Achille Mbembe (philosopher), Juliana Rotich (iHub Nairobi), Robert Mica (Outernet), Bob Collymore (Safaricom CEO), Isis Nyong’o (former director, Google Africa) and Louis Otieno (Microsoft4Afrika).
A six-part journey through state of the art of robotics and artificial intelligence. What is a robot? It is a shell for an artificial intelligence, a mechanical device capable of interacting with its environment, a machine that can autonomously perform an assigned task. Robots are also much more than this, something that escapes baseline definitions and has fascinated humanity for centuries. This series guides us through the discovery of the most intriguing projects that robotics has to offer, getting to know machines and ideas that will impact our future or are already part of our everyday lives. We examine a variety of robots in action—from androids created to entertain to machines designed to explore inhospitable habitats, from the wonders of biomimetics to the cities of tomorrow.
Barbershop Punk: Net Neutrality, Media Consolidation, and You
When Robb Topolski set out to share his collection of rare, turn-of-the-century barbershop quartet recordings over the internet, he found his uploads were blocked by his service provider, the nation's largest cable company, Comcast. From this seemingly innocuous beginning, the surprising events of Barbershop punk unfold as Topolski's findings go public, casting him as a wry David against a corporate Goliath in a battle over how the First Amendment should function in the internet age. Inter-woven with the struggles of the Topolski family are FCC hearings on net neutrality, and discussions with politicians, musicians, critics and open Internet advocates-from the Christian Coalition to NARAL--who are striving to keep the Internet accessible to everyone.
This program investigates the smart machines and robots that may one day run society and do work for humans. To explore this strange new era, the program integrates live action with extensive animation and visual effects.
“Beyond Innovation” uncovers the world’s new and emerging technologies changing the way we live and do business. Venture capitalist and entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera travels the globe in search of investors and founders who are taking risks and betting big on our future. Journalist Michael Bancroft unearths the latest advancements in technology across industries, including artificial intelligence and gene editing, and discovers innovators creating the probable from the once impossible.
Teachers can make good use of blogs and online collaboration. Head of geography Sally Sumner never thought she d be able to set up and use an effective online resource. Now she uses blogs at Bury Church Secondary school as a resource in the classroom and as a revision tool for pupils. MFL teacher Janet McCann finds blogging provides invaluable motivation for many of the boys in her class, and we hear why the pupils find this technology so engaging. At Priestsic Primary School in Nottinghamshire ICT co-ordinator Tom Barrett uses online collaboration tools to enable peer assessment that develops the pupils literacy skills. Collaborative online educational games also improve pupils numeracy skills as they work on a safe environment on the web.
Can a Computer Write a Hit Musical? (Series)
This bold experiment to try to get computers to write a hit musical has a big question at its heart: can human creativity be coded? There’s genuine jeopardy, as the computer boffins hand over the material to a professional cast of actors and musicians. Will the world’s first computer-generated show be a hit or a flop when it opens on the West End stage?
This film is an informative expression of how our young people actually feel about connection in the digital world and our love/hate relationship with technology. It provides empowering strategies for more fulfilling, balanced, and authentic human interaction within the digital landscape. The film ... examines the effects of 'digital socialization' by taking viewers on a personal journey with a group of high school and college students who discover the power of authentic human connectivity and how there is 'No App' or piece of technology that can ever replace the benefits of human connection.
Enter a hidden third world shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the Internet rids itself of what it doesn't like: violence, pornography and political content. Here we meet five "digital scavengers" among thousands of people outsourced from Silicon Valley whose job is to delete "inappropriate" content off of the net. In a parallel struggle, we meet people around the globe whose lives are dramatically affected by online censorship. A typical "cleaner" must observe and rate thousands of often deeply disturbing images and videos every day, leading to lasting psychological impacts.
Code: Debugging the Gender Gap
Tech jobs are growing three times faster than our colleges are producing computer science graduates. By 2020, there will be one million unfilled software engineering jobs in the USA. Through compelling interviews, artistic animation and clever flashpoints in popular culture, CODE documentary examines the reasons why more girls and people of color are not seeking opportunities in computer science and explores how cultural mindsets, stereotypes, educational hurdles and sexism all play roles in this national crisis. Expert voices from the worlds of tech, psychology, science, and education are intercut with inspiring stories of women who are engaged in the fight to challenge complacency in the tech industry and have their voices heard. CODE aims to inspire change in mindsets, in the educational system, in startup culture and in the way women see themselves in the field of coding.
Four Corners explores the world of Facebook and how your data is being mined to drive the huge success of the social media giant. Reporter Peter Greste examines the Facebook business model and shows why your private life is making the company billions.The program investigates how Facebook has the ability to track much of your browsing history, even when you're not logged on, and even if you aren't a member of the social network. It also reveals how the methods used to deliver targeted advertising also drives what 'news' appears in your Facebook feed, and why you are unlikely to see anything that challenges your world view.
Cyber War takes you deep into the world of cyber hacking, where the weapon of choice is computer code. The program takes a look at how a new generation of hackers are threatening everything from your bank account details to national secrets.
Cyberterror, Bringing Down the Internet
When the next terrorist attack occurs, will it be by air strike or keystroke? This program reveals the vulnerability of the internet backbone to paralyzing hack attacks and measures being taken to close some of the many holes in the net. After discussing the open nature of online communications and how attacks via landline are conducted, security consultants demonstrate the ease with which cyberterrorists can breach wireless networks by "war driving." Software and insurance companies as well as law enforcement agencies are cited as crucial components in what must become an all-out coordinated anti-terror effort - while there is still time.
Dark Web: Fighting Cyber Crime
Virtually anyone with an Internet connection will be the victim of a cyber attack at some point in his or her life.It's no longer a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when'. In the fight against this new legion of criminals, our only hope is to embrace the full potential of AI. It's not about man vs. machine - it's about man and machine vs. Cybercrime. This special will arm you with the information you need about the most cutting-edge ways we are fighting cybercrime.
Digital Side Effects: When Computers Think For Us
Featuring psychologists, scientists, and professors from all over the globe, this documentary synthesizes theories, psychiatric evaluations, and quantitative evidence from studies on the brain that indicate a serious global epidemic of digital addiction. The ubiquitous nature of the Internet in developed countries as well as the surge of smartphone use over the last few years has had a significant effect on the brain, often becoming a full-blown addiction. This addiction is directly correlated to dementia-like symptoms and a balance is needed to ensure healthy brain functioning into old age. Learn about the risks of this new digital age as well as strategies to remedy the negative effects that are already visible.
Jamie Bartlett uncovers the reality behind Silicon Valley's glittering promise to build a better world. He visits Uber's lavish offices in San Francisco and hears how the company believes it is improving our cities. But in Hyderabad, India, Jamie sees the human consequences of Uber's utopian vision. Riding shotgun in a truck as it drives itself for more than a hundred miles on a highway, Jamie asks what the next wave of Silicon Valley's global disruption will mean for all of us. In search of answers, he gets a warning from an artificial intelligence pioneer who is replacing doctors with software. Jamie's journey ends in the remote island hideout of a former Facebook executive who has armed himself with a gun because he fears this new industrial revolution could lead to social breakdown and the collapse of capitalism.
Directed by Chris Paine (Who Killed The Electric Car?) and executive produced by Chris Paine and Tiffany Asakawa, Do You Trust This Computer? examines the promises and perils of this developing era. Science fiction has long anticipated the rise of machine intelligence. Today, a new generation of self-learning computers has begun to reshape every aspect of our lives. Incomprehensible amounts of data are being created, interpreted, and fed back to us in a tsunami of apps, personal assistants, smart devices, and targeted advertisements. Virtually every industry on earth is experiencing this transformation, from job automation, to medical diagnostics, even military operations. Do You Trust This Computer? explores the promises and perils of our new era. Will A.I. usher in an age of unprecedented potential, or prove to be our final invention?
Down The Deep, Dark Web reverses everything you thought you knew about the Internet and the dangers of the digital world. Our guide is Yuval Orr, a young journalist born in 1984 and well-aware of the gradual encroachment of Big Brother, but like many of his generation, too busy updating his Facebook status to pay it much attention. Assigned with writing an article about the Darknet, he dives headfirst down the rabbit hole.
Great Unsung Women of Computing
In the United States, women are vastly underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) fields, holding under 25% of STEM jobs and a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees. GREAT UNSUNG WOMEN OF COMPUTING is a series of three remarkable documentary films that show how women revolutionized the computing and Internet technology we use today, inspiring female students to believe that programming careers lie within their grasp. Winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Documentary at the **United Nations Association Film Festival**.
This program traces the development of the electronic computer, from the valve-based devices of the mid-20th century to the invention of silicon-based technology and through to the manufacture of the first personal computers. The constant phenomenal growth in computing power and speed and the resulting reduction in costs are central themes. The video ends by examining what the future might hold in relation to computing technologies.
With the rapid emergence of digital devices, an unstoppable, invisible force is changing human lives in ways from the microscopic to the gargantuan.
Hyper-Evolution: The Rise of the Robots (Series)
This series explores if machines built to enhance our lives could one day become our greatest rivals. Presenters Professor Danielle George MBE, an electronics engineer from Manchester University, and robot supporter and Dr. Ben Garrod, an evolutionary biologist from Anglia Ruskin University and robo-sceptic, will uncover whether the rise of the robots will enhance the progress of humanity or ultimately threaten the survival of the human race. With extraordinary access to the world’s leading robot-makers, they will meet the trailblazing machines who pioneered key evolutionary leaps for robot-kind, and their most advanced descendants – to uncover just how far we’ve really come.
Every hour of every day, our digital interactions are being recorded and logged. We live in the age of big data, where the seemingly mundane information of our everyday existence has enormous value. With the help of expert data trackers, this revealing doc offers a comprehensive look at how governments and large companies keep tabs on us. It follows the information trail of an ordinary Australian family on a typical day.
The Dark Web is a secret online space that allows users complete anonymity. As online surveillance increases, this virtual world has grown in popularity. For some it is a place where criminals can operate - a shadowy underworld where users can purchase anything from illegal drugs to credit card details. For others, it is a haven, free from the government control and censorship that threatens the regular web. As users, programmers, governments and businesses battle over control of our online world, Horizon takes a trip through the Dark Web and meets the scientists, engineers and programmers fighting to save the internet.
An Introduction to Machine Learning & Deep Neutral Networks
Yuqian Chang, a PhD student in marketing from Temple University, discusses a machine learning method known as deep neural network.
Professor Jim al-Khalili takes a sharp-witted and optimistic look at machines that can simulate, augment, and even outperform the human mind – and why we should not let this spook us. He tells the story of the pursuit of AI, the emergence of machine learning, and the recent breakthroughs brought about by artificial neural networks. See how spam filters use AI to weed out v!agr@ as well as Viagra from your inbox; meet a cutting-edge chatbot; see why a few altered pixels makes a computer think it is looking at a trombone rather than a dog; and talk to Demis Hassabis, the AI wizard who heads DeepMind.
This high-tech romp reveals exactly what data is and how it is captured, stored, shared, and made sense of. Meet Dr. Hannah Fry who sees data as the essential bridge between two universes; Claude Shannon, who devised a way to digitize all information and launched the ‘information age’; and Donald Davies, the inventor of packet switching. Along the way the film reveals the connection between Scrabble scores and online movie streaming, explains why a herd of Wiltshire dairy cows are wearing pedometers, and uncovers the remarkable network map of Wikipedia.
Tech giants and car manufacturers alike are developing self-driving cars, and some of them are already on public roads. But what must computers be capable of to truly take the wheel? And could they eventually be safer than human drivers?
Make, Create, Innovate (Series)
This science and technology series tells the stories behind the inventions and technological breakthroughs that are reshaping our world.
Mapping the Future: The Power of Algorithms
In the last few years, the data stream flowing through the internet has turned into a tsunami: Ninety percent of the information sitting on the world's servers was created in the last two years. This total digitization opens up completely new possibilities. Suddenly, our entire lives can be modelled mathematically - and become predictable. We show how predictive analytics is being used today and ask how our lives will change if our future becomes computable.
Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg's journey from college student to the founder of one of the most influential new businesses in the world is the stuff of legend. This program tells the story of the social media Web site's extraordinary rise using an exclusive interview with Zuckerberg and access to senior staff at the company's Silicon Valley offices. Filmed before Facebook became a publicly traded company, the video also examines the challenge of combining idealism with business realities, the use of Facebook as a market research database, threats from Google and others, and the critical role that Zuckerberg himself plays in determining Facebook's prospects.
In this episode of Dara O'Briain's Science Club, the team explores the human brain, with segments on optical illusions, human-computer interactions, mindreading via brain scans, and collective behavior. Entertaining and thought-provoking, Dara O'Briain's Science Club combines lively studio discussions featuring some of the world's most eminent scientists, with exciting experiments, studio demonstrations and film reports of cutting-edge science stories. Loosely themed each episode - from Invisible Worlds to Size Matters via Adventures in Time - Science Club explores the ideas that are transforming our lives and our understanding of the world.
This program takes a detailed look at the evolution of computers as it traces their development from the days of the ENIAC to IBM's awesome ASCI White, which can perform 12 trillion calculations per second.
Motion capture technology is revolutionizing myriad industries from entertainment to education, but its biggest impact has been in the movie industry and healthcare. We meet a pioneer of motion capture in the movies, Andy Serkis. The star of The Lord of The Rings and the Planet of the Apes refresh teaches Nick how the technology works and how to become a motion capture star. We then see how the same technology is helping doctors better map the body's movements and helping the injured and disabled return to a normal life.
One generation from now most people in the U.S. will have spent more time in the virtual world than in nature. At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, Play again explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural world. This moving and humorous documentary follows six teenagers who, like the average American child, spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. Play again unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure--no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality.
Learn how robots were first conceptualized in ancient Rome and see how their use has evolved over the centuries, from the calculator to the Roomba. Then, take a sneak peek at what future robots will be able to do.
The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms
In this program, Professor Marcus du Sautoy lifts the veil on algorithms that touch our lives every day; most of us are unaware of their
extraordinary impact. The expansion in the use of algorithms has coincided with the computer age and the collation of big data. We focus on the most interesting and surprising examples which represent different categories of algorithms and look into the historical example of Euclid’s Algorithm from two and half thousand years ago; the modern godfather of algorithms could only be Alan Turing. Marcus will explore how math is being used to solve real world problems and even make life and death decisions.
The film chronicles a tumultuous year in the lives of two young activists grappling with rapid social change and the meaning of globalization on their own doorsteps. Magda Escobar runs Plugged In, a computer training center in a low-income community just a few miles from the epicenter of high-tech wealth. Raj Jayadev is a temporary worker who confronts the hype of Silicon Valley by revealing the reality of an unseen and unacknowledged army of immigrant workers. Throughout the film, high tech CEOs and moguls comment on Magda and Raj's stories with revealing insights on time, technology, greed, and globalization. Part "Modern Times," part "Bladerunner," this film takes a critical look at the social impact of the new millennium's high technology. Includes public performance rights.
This program tells the story of the pioneering scientists who transformed rural Santa Clara County into the hub of technological ingenuity we now know as Silicon Valley. The film spotlights the creativity of the young men who founded Fairchild Semiconductor, led by charismatic physicist Robert Noyce. Their radical innovations would include the integrated circuit that helped make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, transforming the way the world works, plays and communicates, making possible everything from the Apollo program to smart phones.
Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy
A brand that defines cool consumerism, Apple Incorporated has become one of the biggest corporations in the world. Its co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, was a long-haired college dropout with infinite ambition, and an inspirational perfectionist with a bully's temper. A man of contradictions, Jobs fused a counterculture attitude and mastery of the art of hype with explosive advances in computer technology. In this program, insiders including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak tell stories of the rise, fall, and rise again of Apple with Steve Jobs at its helm. With Stephen Fry, World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and branding guru Rita Clifton.
TEDTalks : John Graham-Cumming - The Greatest Machine That Never Was
Computer science began in the '30s... the 1830s. In this TEDTalk, programmer John Graham-Cumming tells the story of Charles Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered "analytical engine" and how Ada Lovelace, mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, saw beyond its simple computational abilities to imagine the future of computers.
TEDTalks, Kriti Sharma-How to Keep Human Bias Out of AI
AI algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for car insurance or whether or not you get that job interview. But what happens when these machines are built with human bias coded into their systems? Technologist Kriti Sharma explores how the lack of diversity in tech is creeping into our AI, offering three ways we can start making more ethical algorithms
Terms and Conditions May Apply
Have you ever read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies connected to every website you visit, phone call you make, or app you use? Of course you haven't. But those agreements allow corporations to do things with your personal information you could never even imagine. What are you really agreeing to when you click "I accept"?
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists
Goes inside the world of Anonymous, the radical 'hacktivist' collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age. Anonymous utilizes computers and computer networks to promote political ends, chiefly free speech, human rights, and information ethics, under the premise that technology can produce results similar to those of conventional acts of protest, activism, and civil disobedience. This film explores the historical roots of early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater and traces how they evolved and coalesced into Anonymous, the full-blown movement with global reach and extraordinary power. Features interviews with current members, members recently returned from prison, others currently facing trial, writers, activists and major players in various "raids."
Professor Nigel Gilbert discusses simulation as a research method and how to use simulations in the social sciences. A simulation is a computer model in which experiments can be conducted, creating a higher level of completeness than a normal experiment. Simulation models can assist in both complex and simple experiments, and they can be used with almost any social process.
Artificial intelligence is developing at breakneck speed, but what does this mean for the job market? Anne-Marie Tomchak, science journalist and the UK Editor of Mashable, investigates how robots could be on course to render the skills of much of the world’s population obsolete, and asks the question - are any of our jobs safe? In a series of exclusive interviews, Anne-Marie will speak to tech gurus, futurologists, including best-selling author of Rise of the Robots Martin Ford, and some of the world's most advanced roboticists to find out how the rise of the machine in an age of increasing automation, is already invisibly shaping all of our lives. We think of robots as primarily being in factories; but the reality is that lawyers, accountants and even artists, are facing a future in which their livelihoods are threatened by artificial intelligence.
By looking at lessons from Victorian telegraph pioneers, Cold War history, Fritz Lang's Metropolis and George Orwell's 1984, host Niall Ferguson tells the story of how a decentralized, not-for-profit worldwide web shape-shifted to become a highly profitable network controlled by a tiny elite selling our attention for billions of dollars to the world's advertisers.
Wired: Gaming, Hacking, and Cyber Attacks in South Korea
Fueled by the fastest and most pervasive Internet connections on Earth, online gaming is now a national obsession in South Korea. But while millions of people are engrossed in virtual warfare, their computers have also become very real battlegrounds, with North Korea launching Web-based assaults that disable banking, transport, and Internet portals in the south. After a discussion of gaming addiction in South Korea, this program talks with key defectors about North Korea's agenda of cyber-attacks. Viewers meet Kim Hung-kwang, an architect of the cyber-warfare program who spent 20 years training hackers in Pyongyang; Park Sang-Hak, the son of a North Korean spy-defector and number one on Pyongyang's hit list; and Jang Se-Yul, a former North Korean colonel, who touches on the implications of hacking for the West.
FEATURE FILMS
Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital world. Trying to prove they are not obsolete, they defy the odds by talking their way into a coveted internship at Google, along with a battalion of brilliant college students. But, gaining entrance to this utopia is only half the battle. Now they must compete with a group of the nation's most elite, tech-savvy geniuses to prove that necessity really is the mother of re-invention.
An attack on the vulnerable United States computer infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the shattering scheme has figured out every digital angle -- but he never figured on an old-fashioned, "analog" fly-in-the-ointment: John McClane.
Based on a Philip K. Dick short story, Minority Report is about a cop in the future working in a division of the police department that arrests killers before they commit the crimes courtesy of some future viewing technology. Cruise's character has the tables turned on him when he is accused of a future crime and must find out what brought it about and stop it before it can happen.
Peter Gibbons just can't seem to catch a break. His girlfriend is cheating on him, he has an obnoxious neighbor, and he's completely miserable with his job as a small cog in a company called Initech. Then he visits a hypnotherapist, who dies just after putting Peter into a state of complete bliss. Free of worrying about making a living, he no longer feels the need to keep his job, just as the company is going through a massive downsizing. However, his new attitude only makes him more valuable in the company's eyes, and his friends Michael and Samir are fired instead. Together, they scheme to plant a virus inside Initech's computer system that will pull money into their own account.