Last month the news hit that Google is working with the US Military in creating recognition AI for military drones This made quite a few staff leave unhappy with the idea their technology is aiding killing people (and made a mockery of their ‘Don’t Be Evil’ slogan, but as we know those ethical qualms disappeared years ago). Also it leads further down the path of Skynet in Terminator and other sci-fi dystopias – the scary idea of autonomous killing machines.
Now this month, it turns out Amazon is selling it’s face recognition software to the police (and I guess other countries and organisations?), and is touting it as a ‘public safety’ tool. It’s already on trial in pilot programs in Oregon and Florida.
This is all making Alexa creepily Big Brother like, which as we know she’s listening all the time – but the people who made themselves guinea pigs to this software are aiding the use of watching minority communities with body cameras and CCTV – the former ironically called for to protect the public from police abuses, but could be the primary tool for a new age of surveillance.
And now Facebook wants to bring back facial recognition in Europe.
Big sister is watching you, and she’s very social. A little too social in fact…
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