Facial recognition? Threat or Treasure?
With the announcement of the new Apple iPhone with facial recognition, a lot of questions are being pondered. Likewise there have been many, many questions since the tech's first uses from all corners of the world -- from average citizens to Homeland Security. Is it legal? Does it rob you of your 4th Amendment rights? Will it be the slippery slope to the police state? Can it be used against you? This is a very scary prospect of the future, and Silicon Valley is already taking it beyond our society's ability to understand it and our government's ability to protect us from it. You will all be sorry about it some day! But let's see what they're saying . . .
- A surprising number of people can't recognize faces — sometimes even their own
- Is it possible to beat facial recognition software? One company says it is.
- What happens when machines become smarter than humans?
- Can we build AI without losing control over it?
- No Longer Just Another Face in the Crowd
No Longer Just Another Face in the Crowd
Like many new privacy-robbing technologies, facial recognition is advancing far faster than legislators can come up with laws or even rules to govern its use. In the absence of such laws, the developers are going to use it to its maximum potential.
Many of us are most familiar with facial recognition technology today through the use of Facebook, which is employing the technology to identify faces in photos that are posted on the site. Their application of the technology is so advanced that it can recognize a person with the same accuracy as an actual human being. And, if you don’t like the fact that Facebook has captured your and tagged your face — too bad.
The use of facial recognition in public places also invokes Fourth Amendment issues. By appearing in public, will this suddenly mean that you have given up your Fourth Amendment rights and consented to a search of your face through an identification database? This becomes more convoluted when you consider that facial recognition can be used to track individuals’ movements.
Homeland Security
Is it possible to beat facial recognition software? One company says it is.
As facial recognition software continues to expand into our daily lives—major retailers use the technology to measure customers’ happiness—so to does the need for a privacy solution. Since you can’t change your facial structure quite as easily as a password, the startup D-ID — short for “de-identification” — offers a solution if your facial data is ever compromised.
This catchall approach to gathering data has recently extended to border security, as the Department of Homeland Security rolls out the tech in airports across the country. When citizens raised concerns about the program, the agency said those worried about privacy and facial scans should “refrain from traveling,” ZDNet reported. thinkprogress.org
A surprising number of people can't recognize faces — sometimes even their own
Some people have a condition that makes it difficult for them to recognize familiar faces, even those of friends and family. Sometimes they may even have issues recognizing themselves. This is called prosopagnosia. Erin Brodwin
Can we build AI without losing control over it?
Sam Harris provides an extraordinary essay on TED TV and forces us to look technology in the face ... this is required viewing for all humans.
Scared of superintelligent AI? You should be, says neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris -- and not just in some theoretical way. We're going to build superhuman machines, says Harris, but we haven't yet grappled with the problems associated with creating something that may treat us the way we treat ants. TED TALK featuring Sam Harris
What happens when machines become smarter than humans?
Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 2050. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. Judgement Day
