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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Appearing first in Google Assistant and Google Photos, Google Lens uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to specifically identify things in the frame of a smartphone camera.
In Google's demo, not only did Google Lens identify a flower, but the species of flower. The demo also showed the automatic login to a wireless router when Google Lens was pointed at the router barcodes. And finally, Google Lens was shown identifying businesses by sight, popping up Google Maps cards for each establishment.
Google Lens is shiny and fun. But from the resulting media commentary, it was clear that the real implications were generally lost.
The common reaction was: "Oooh, look! Another toy for our smartphones! Isn't A.I. amazing!" In reality, Google showed us a glimpse of the future of general-purpose sensing. Thanks to machine learning, it's now possible to create a million different sensors in software using only one actual sensor -- the camera.
In Google's demo, it's clear that the camera functions as a "super-sensor." Instead of a flower-identification sensor, a bar-code reader and a retail-business identifier, Google Lens is just one all-purpose super-sensor with software-based, A.I.-fueled "virtual sensors" built in software either locally or in the cloud.
Talking about the Internet of Things (IoT) four years ago, the phrase "trillion sensor world" came into vogue in IT circles. Futurists vaguely imagined a trillion tiny devices with a trillion antennas and a trillion batteries (that had to be changed a trillion times a year).
In this future, we would be covered in wearable sensors. All merchandise and machinery would be tagged with RFID chips that would alert mounted readers to their locations. Special purpose sensors would pervade our homes, offices and workplaces.
We were so innocent then -- mostly about the promise and coming ubiquity of A.I. and machine learning.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @01:04AM (2 children)
Yeah that's right, I'll just jack off while wearing a Google Lens and the video feed will be uploaded directly to YouTube where I will need to pay a fine when it gets taken down for explicit content. Fuck Google, and you know what, fuck every single last motherfucker who continues to work at Google instead of resigning. Google is pure evil, and every Google employee is worse than Hitler. It's personal, bitches! Google employees are Satan!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:17AM (1 child)
It is ironic that you (appear to) offend (((google))).
The technique you used is applied by jewish rats usually. The constant bombarding of the same message eventually breaks the average minds into thinking what the jew rat propagandist wants them to.
(((google))) is only a tool that was developed and is being used to further the goals of the jewish vermin to install a one-world government. (((google))) lens is where you keep an eye on yourself so the jews don't have to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @05:09PM
This is confusing to me. May I make a proposal?
Let's use parens when identifying where the Jews are echoing, for example: (((Jews))).
For Google, let's use curly braces, for example: {{{Google}}}.
Finally, just to try to make my proposal robust, I'd like to suggest pointing fingers for reptiles from Alpha Draconis, like this: ☛☛☛lizard people☚☚☚. Note: those should not be used when talking about <<<Silurians>>>, since <<<they're>>> from the Sol system, and neither should the ☛☛☛lizard people☚☚☚ be confused with the (((Jews))).
Hope that helps!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @01:13AM (3 children)
Only a child or an incredibly stupid person could imagine such technology
is ( or will remain ) benign.
Install such a sensor in your home ?
Are you kidding me ? Why not just commit a serious crime and go to prison
for the rest of your life now, and cut out the middleman. If you're comfortable
with being watched, prison will have a lot of advantages for you, such as never
wondering if you can pay for electricity or whether you will lose your job.
Go ahead, submit, and take the cock of totalitarian government so far up
your ass that it tickles your throat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:20AM (1 child)
People already welcome these sensors into their homes. Consoles, smart TVs, and their own phones/laptops staring them in the face. 1/10,000 actually think their devices could be hacked. Most techies even dismiss the idea, thinking Apple is sacrosanct and truly protects them. I mean, why else would they deny the FBI?
Until we get a big enough scandal this shit won't hit the average person person hard enough to matter. Few think about the info they already leak not realizing that yes, it does matter! The standard response, "I don't care if they know what groceries I'm buying, haha they'll just be bored!" and similar variations.
Can you tell I'm frustrated? Maybe we should all just change our names to Cassandra. If you're male just do the spanish thing, add an O instead of that A.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 22 2017, @03:30AM
It's all good until you connect the device to the Internet.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @09:44AM
Hello, I just want to say that if you have nothing to hide, this is not a problem! For example, could I send you a selfie of my junk?
Sincerely, Anthony Wiener, ex-congress pervert.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @01:14AM (19 children)
To all of you to deployed Googles recaptcha to your sites, and for those you still used the sites who basically became fronts for Google's AI training. I hope you are happy with the dystopian results you have wrought upon the world.
"We were so innocent then -- mostly about the promise and coming ubiquity of A.I. and machine learning."
Bull. It was obvious a mile away what was happening, people in the know screamed at the top of their lungs about it, but were told to shut up, called the "Tin foil hat" brigade, amongst other insults, and generally ignored and ridiculed.
That isn't innocence, that is pig headed ignorance, coupled with an elitist attitude and blind faith in centralised structures (corporate or government). Not that feigning naiveté of a 5 year old is much of an improvement, IMO. That just illustrates stunted social development.
I wouldn't really care if it wasn't the case that the future is somewhere where I and others like me have to live, but we do. Even if I never had a smartphone "supersensor" as it is called in TFA, everyone else will have one, monitoring me, where I am, what I am doing, who I am with. And would not surprise me if one day the AI can detect me as "human", then probably run facial recognition tech to find out exactly who I am.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @01:25AM (14 children)
You opined : "And would not surprise me if one day the AI can detect me as "human", then probably run facial recognition tech to find out exactly who I am."
Actually, the cameras which are already installed on the sides of the Interstate highway system in the US are ALREADY capable of
face-reco with respect to the occupants of vehicles which travel those roads. I was told this is the case by a guy who worked for one of the contractors
of the system, and I am pretty damned sure it is true. So ... while you drive down the road your face is being imaged and
your presence on that road at a particular time is logged. The implications of this are not clear, but you don't have to be "Richard
Stallman-paranoid" to have misgivings what could result in terms of unpleasant business.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @01:32AM (13 children)
Well yes, but they have to be explicitly programmed to spot humans and run the face detection. Much as I detest highway cameras, you can at least avoid them or minimise your exposure to them, if by nothing else than not using the highways and go on the smaller roads that criss cross the country (as people did before highways existed)
This is a much bigger deal. Imagine trying to avoid every single phone camera you pass by each day. From the people who walk with it in front of their face, texting (but pointing the camera forward), to those talking on it, with the camera pointing outward to the side, to those who put the phone on a desk/table/surface, with the front camera facing up. That doesn't even include how more and more things are coming with cameras. From drones, to streetlamps, to hairbrushes. Fucking mental.
It is a whole another level of getting screwed. I can avoid fixed cameras on highways if I want. Avoiding every single person with a device which can record an image is a nightmare. Unless I really want to move to a shack in the middle of nowhere and live the rest of my life out that way. However that isn't really what I would want out of my life, and if I did that it would be considered a gift to those who seek to control others. One less person to be a thorn in their side.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:46AM (12 children)
The most reasonable response seems to be that the genie is out of the bottle, so how do we adapt? To start off, privacy legislation! Next, serious security development for our devices. Make it reasonable to assume you're safe instead of the opposite.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @04:58AM (1 child)
I believe the genie is out of the bottle.
Trying to enforce privacy at this level is just as un-doable as trying to enforce copyright or farting in elevators.
I greet the Google advancement of this as a mixed bag.
It would be nice to take a picture of a leaf, and Google tell me what plant it belongs to. Show it a diseased leaf and Google will tell me what to do to fix it. Show it a picture of anything: plant, mineral, or animal, and Google will tell me what it is.
As far as hiding from the law, they already have economic means of hounding damned near anyone. The powers-that-be get on someone's ass, and that person's life is hell. Google or not.
666 is here right now. Its our social security number.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @04:46PM
No, because it's governments and large corporations that are the biggest threats. Enforcing privacy laws for the latter is somewhat doable. For the government, maybe we'll have to take away all their tech toys and force them to use stone age technology, since they can't be trusted with newer toys. Don't be a useful idiot by saying 'Well let's just give up and let them do whatever they want.'
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday May 22 2017, @05:33AM (3 children)
As per the stainless steel rat, when you can no longer avoid the DB, overload it. What we need is to start wearing Vendetta like masks or paper masks like the Chinese do in general public. Get a mask of yourself and exchange with someone else so you are not where you are...
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @09:34AM (2 children)
Until they make wearing masks, or otherwise hiding your identity in public illegal. Then what?
(Longer post on the same idea here: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=19634&page=1&cid=513403 [soylentnews.org] )
Not to mention, it has been shown you can detect quite accurately who a person is by:
a) their height
b) their girth
c) their gait (how you walk).
So, a future of wearing masks, going on high heels to alter our height, wear padding to alter our girth, and making sure to walk in funny ways awaits us!
It would be surreal and funny I guess, if it wasn't a sad reality to exist in.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday May 22 2017, @06:45PM (1 child)
We could do like South Korean women seem to have done and all have plastic surgery so that we look the same. I also think that the success rate of such software has been blown out of proportion by the folks who have a vested interest in it 'financial' success.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601786/are-face-recognition-systems-accurate-depends-on-your-race/ [technologyreview.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @11:06PM
> I also think that the success rate of such software has been blown out of proportion by the folks who have a vested interest in it 'financial' success.
Oh I am sure it isn't as good as they say. However getting a false positive is an even bigger bitch then it being accurate. One thing to identify someone for $whatever because of $threat, another to identify an innocent incorrectly, then $do_nasty to them, including possibly shooting them, like the police did to Charles De Menzes in London (for reference for those who do not know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes). [wikipedia.org]
Getting shot because an AI incorrectly identified me is not much consolation to the flawed system of AI, quite frankly. There are a lot of really thick people out there, where if computer says "yes", they will $do_nasty to person, and think later (if at all).
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 22 2017, @05:40AM (3 children)
This is a technical problem, that is, a matter of established physical reality. Legislation never did win a fight with cold hard physics. So the solution is to throw a wrench in the works. If everyone in your car is wearing Donald Trump masks, for example, that could lead to a case of what is politely called "Bayesian poisoning." Think, by analogy here, diarrhetic shellfish poisoning for databases :)
tl;dr: you can't hide, but you can bullshit.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @09:21AM (2 children)
" If everyone in your car is wearing Donald Trump masks, for example, that could lead to a case of what is politely called "Bayesian poisoning." Think, by analogy here, diarrhetic shellfish poisoning for databases :)
tl;dr: you can't hide, but you can bullshit."
Until they make covering your face, or otherwise preventing identification illegal. Here in the UK they are trying to make a blanket ban on being in public with your face covered. The only exceptions at the moment are motorcycle helmets (safety) and burka's (religious discrimination). In theory I think you can wear a mask in a car, but if you do you would be pulled over for "driving without due care an attention", the argument being the mask interferes with your ability to drive properly (and having worn masks, they do really make it hard to see well).
Somehow I don't think trying to game the system by feeding it erroneous data will work, because quite frankly, if governments/corporations get a hold of this level of control via this tech, they a) won't let go of it without a fight, and b) they will make sure to corral as many people into it as they possibly can, making sure to criminalise anyone who tried to undermine the system.
Yes, I realise the UK is one of the world's most developed police states, however that is only because they are ahead of the curve. Where the UK is now, others will be in a few years. So thinking "but that isn't the case where I live" is not really a solution for the future.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday May 22 2017, @06:54PM (1 child)
I am not wearing a mask to prevent identification but for health reasons officer. The idea being not to wear a mask of someone but a surgical mask...
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/16965/1/Why-Do-Asians-Wear-Surgical-Masks.html [healthguidance.org]
A billion Chinese can't be wrong twice can they ? :)
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @10:50PM
Touche :)
However, they can identify you by your facial structure. Specifically the jawline, and distance between bridge, eyes, node and top of your head. A mask like the Asians wear will not save you from being identified, as it does not mask any of those features.
Seriously, the average human has so many unique tells, that trying to mask your identity this way is a losing battle. Do not rely on your ability to impart false data in the machine, you will not win. Better fight now for the machine to never be created in the first place.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @09:28AM
" To start off, privacy legislation!"
Ha, you are joking right? Look at every other piece of privacy legislation put forward. It pretty much isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Governments will violate it whenever they want, however they want. I guess you can sue the government, but in the end:
a) you would have spent a lot of money
b) you might get some compensation, or you might lose against someone with far more money than you, and possibly have your life ruined.
c) your privacy would still be violated
and
d) because the government is funded by taxes, you are essentially being paid compensation with money they took (or will take) from you in the first place, so no real gain, and an overall loss, because their court and legal expenses , are charged to you as well (whether you win or lose).
So, really relying on government to save you, when they would be the first to use this tech against you, is naive to the max.
It might help with corporations, however any corporation with this kind of level of tech would be heavily embedded with the government, so the above would be exactly the same, except if you did get some compensation, it would come from the company, who would take out debt, which would be provided by a central bank printing money, which is basically taking from the public anyway.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday May 22 2017, @05:38PM
The legislation already exists [europa.eu], at least in the EU. One of the core tenets of EU regulation 2016/679 (on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)>) states that Natural persons should have control of their own personal data.
Further, the protection of natural persons should apply to the processing of personal data by automated means, as well as to manual processing, if the personal data are contained or are intended to be contained in a filing system, and the principles of data protection should apply to any information concerning an identified or identifiable natural person. Personal data which have undergone pseudonymisation, which could be attributed to a natural person by the use of additional information should be considered to be information on an identifiable natural person.
If the provided service tries to keep track of you online, this means you're identifiable and hence processing of your information requires consent (para 30): Natural persons may be associated with online identifiers provided by their devices, applications, tools and protocols, such as internet protocol addresses, cookie identifiers or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags. This may leave traces which, in particular when combined with unique identifiers and other information received by the servers, may be used to create profiles of the natural persons and identify them.
This consent is presumed not to be freely given if it does not allow separate consent to be given to different personal data processing operations despite it being appropriate in the individual case, or if the performance of a contract, including the provision of a service, is dependent on the consent despite such consent not being necessary for such performance. (para 43)
It doesn't matter whether the processor of those data is located within the EU (para 23, 24).
(The regulation does provide an exclusion in case of national security, or activities in relation to the common foreign and security policy of the Union. Also, the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including the safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security and the free movement of such data, is the subject of a specific Union legal act.).
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday May 22 2017, @02:00AM (1 child)
Better obey government and people with power from here on.
But there are devices that change their voltage output very rapidly and those tend to be bad for chips..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:51AM
So mass vandalism? I guess that is preferable to actual civil war / guerilla fighters. Of course jail or actual fighting is the end result of vandalism, better to use the political processes (haha are we too cynical yet?) to get these violations of civil rights off the highways and everywhere else.
Yay hollywood normalizing these things as tools only for catching bad guys /s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @02:23AM (1 child)
When I'm fighting off the Terminators, I'll make time to loot your house.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @11:10PM
Be my guest, there is fuck all in my house worth stealing. Something to do with not being "materialistically minded".
Plus if the terminators are roaming about, I am sure to have booby trapped the place to hell and buggered off ages ago (if I survived).
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 22 2017, @02:03AM (16 children)
I use an ad blocker not because I object to advertising - I don't - but because I object to being tracked.
I'm going to start wearing a burqha.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @02:34AM
You don't want to be on the internet, and yet you register an account under your real name Michael David Crawford. What are you hiding under that burqa?
Eris Blastar, are you Eris Blastar? Did you join GitHub under a pseudonym because you didn't want to admit to using GitHub? Did you want to pretend to be a purist who uses SourceForge but refuses to use GitHub?
Did you assume a female identity as Eris Blastar and use the avatar of a female celebrity because you are male and you want to pretend to be your own opposite?
How many sock puppet accounts do you have under pseudonyms?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @05:14AM (13 children)
I do not run ad-blockers. Never have. I run script-blockers.
Because I do not trust scripts.
Many scripts carry resource-consuming annoyances or worse, hostile code.
I consider scripts to be worse than things I find in public toilets as far as hostile intent go, that is I have yet to see exploding turds crafted with the intention of doing in anyone who sits on the toilet.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @05:57AM (8 children)
I hope someday you code a brilliant app in JavaScript, and just so you are hoisted by your own petard, I hope everyone refuses to use it, because everyone believes as you do that scripts are worse than a hostile shitweasel in a toilet.
No word yet on whether Michael Duddits Crawford is or is not Jonesy? I still think MDC is Eris Discordia Blastar in fantasy life.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @06:41AM (2 children)
If they do, they will know who gave it to 'em.
I will not run my little shitweasel behind someone's back like a lot of websites do.
I won't eat things if I cannot verify it came from a trusted source. Does not mean I do not eat. I watch what I eat.
If I crafted up something and take responsibility for it, I would imagine others may try it. If I try to sneak it on their plate when they are not watching, I would imagine the restaurant that let me try such a thing would soon be avoided like the plague.
Do not eat that little cylinder you do not know whats in it. They say its candy. The one I got was powdered roach. It made me sick and took me three days to get the stench out of my mouth. Had to reformat my disk drive and restore from backup too.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @07:48AM (1 child)
Here, have a gift horse!
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ErisBlastar/Internet-plus-Equality/master/internet-plus-equality.user.js [githubusercontent.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @09:45AM
Even though ErisBlastar does not appear to have any malicious intent from my preliminary research of the URL you gave, I would still be leery of running something an AC gives me in response to the post I just wrote. It *might* be another roach... but I won't find out until I eat it.
Like a cat that's been trapped before, I am a little skittish.
It might be a really nice program, but I would have to trust the person giving it to me.
Just as I would have to trust a person giving me a fruitcake, especially if word's out that people are making fruitcakes with rabbit pellets for shits and giggles. ( or worse ).
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Monday May 22 2017, @12:39PM (4 children)
Anyway not the other poster and don't speak for him but we do seem to share some ideas here. And I don't think it has much to do with 'javascript' (really ecmascript) itself, per se. It's tempting to say it's a crummy language, but that's not the point, and it's not even totally true - it's not a bad language per se it's just constantly misused. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, and if javascript is what you think of as 'programming' then every programming assignment looks like 'make this webpage unbearably awful.'
But that's not really the point. Replace ecmascript with the most elegant and functional replacement known to man, I still don't want it. The fundamental concept of routinely embedding programs in documents is dangerously wrong, no matter what language the programs are written in.
And, the obverse, if you want to use ecmascript to write your 'apps' and distribute them with a standalone interpreter knock yourself out. The issue comes when you assume that you can send me your app instead of a web page, and expect it to run without my intervention, inside my browser. No, no, no.
Browsers *should* require user confirmation before running any sort of ecmascript, and that *should* have prevented it from becoming too exploitable, but in the real world sanity and security got stampeded by a crowd of drooling lunatics with money in their hands demanding everything be made easier.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @04:50PM (2 children)
Well let me see do I want to maintain:
Android app
iOS app
Linux app
macOS app
Windows app
Or do I want to maintain:
JavaScript app
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday May 22 2017, @06:33PM (1 child)
Come on.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @01:14AM
JavaScript isn't just cross-platform, it's pre-installed on every platform. Convenience makes it the best choice for developers and for users.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday May 23 2017, @02:36AM
That is the whole problem in a nutshell! Beautifully said.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 22 2017, @06:52AM (3 children)
Well, they won't be intentionally-crafted, but try eating a vindalu that's been sitting out for 8 hours or so...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @07:07AM (2 children)
Oooh! Isn't that the stuff that sets your pants on fire? Providing, of course, that you could get it past your mouth...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 22 2017, @07:15AM
I've been a chilli fiend from a young age thanks to growing up in a majority-Cantonese neighborhood, so no, no pants-on-fire here moments. It's definitely hot, but its effects are similar to (though different than) Sichuan "numbing-spicy" food when done right.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday May 22 2017, @12:28PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @11:01AM
It might be simpler than that. What if you made your lower lip look bigger by coloring the skin directly below with the correct shade of lipstick? Would that be enough to mess up facial recognition?
How about a large bandage on one cheek (as if you were covering a wound)?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 22 2017, @03:27AM (6 children)
The AI is with you, all the time. Not just you, but millions of other people. All day, every day. It watches you and your spouse. It watches how you interact with your children. It watches how you interact with your elderly relatives. It watches your driving. It listens as you curse your boss. It's there when your mistress is. It hears and watches as you interact with sales clerks. Everything you do, if you carry your own i-Thing, and most of everything you do if you don't carry your own i-Thing.
Google's AI will become the pre-crime unit, soon. No need to keep some precocious kids doped up in a swimming pool, or anything like that. Artificial intelligence, and it's always watching. Soon, it will be to late to turn the damned phone off. Right now, Google already knows which government actors are dirt bags. It already knows which BLM people are only there to scam the system. It knows which cops are even worse dirt bags.
Oh, Running Man, too. If you somehow become a threat to some goal that the AI finds desirable, the evidence will be heavily edited, long before any human gets involved into any inquiry. People make mistakes, and leave artifacts behind when tampering with evidence. The AI learns from all those mistakes, and won't make them.
Dystopia isn't very far away, people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:56AM (4 children)
"Soon, it will be to late to turn the damned phone off."
We're already there, there are hidden batteries so that even removing the main battery means someone could listen in on your for another 5-30 mins probably. Powering the phone off does nothing, phones can be remotely turned on. I'm tempted to get a serious metal case with some sound proofing just to carry my phone around in.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @05:07AM (2 children)
Same with a Smart TV.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday May 22 2017, @09:40AM (1 child)
Same with a smart anything really.
The "internet of things" will be a barrel of fun. We are just starting with the hard core dystopia, it can get a lot worse.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Monday May 22 2017, @10:51AM
Quite true. No telling what kind of "riders" that manufacturers of in-home always-on internet-connected devices will incorporate for their business partners.
Just like all the javascript riders we find on high-traffic business sites these days.
Especially with all these "Copyright/Intellectual Property protection" laws in place that mandate an ignorant user base which will be - by law - kept in the dark about what's going on behind their back.
So the hapless high technology adopter that brings this into his home may likely discover he has a major problem of things getting out, and have no idea of how its happening.
Smoke a joint, in your own home, go to jail. You did not know your TV camera was beaming pictures of what you were doing when you were watching the porn, no? Or maybe find a line on your Spokeo listing as to whether or not you make your bed every day, what you eat, and how long it takes you to pee, or get a premium raise from your insurance company because they caught you eating the wrong stuff. Or get a visit from the animal care unit because you were caught feeding your dog table scraps instead of the government sanctioned dog food. This list could go on forever....
Maybe I am a bit too pessimistic here... a smart TV with remote cameras could come in very handy for catching cheating spouses in the act. Their cellphones already are very useful for this.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday May 22 2017, @05:39AM
Our man flint with James Coburn already covered the home phone listening in on you in the late 60's. One of the ultimate enemies was the 'Ma-Bell' entity.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/our_man_flint/ [rottentomatoes.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @11:06AM
While my choice to not have kids was made for other reasons, this adds another one. I can probably survive the next ~30+ years, but right now I'd feel really bad if I had kids that were growing up into this brave new surveillance state.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @09:56PM
This is what Google Glass was supposed to do. Why do people suddenly think this is a new idea? The idea is far, far older than Google Glass too.