Witness testimony from northern Gaza shows that Israel is using facial recognition technology to organize how it conducts mass arrests and forcible displacement. Some Palestinians say the technology is also being used to carry out field executions.
When I heard about Project Nimbus I imagined this was the use case. Cloud computing to catalogue all Palestinians and identify targets. You’re automating oppression and ethnic cleansing at this point.
This is sadly why I just decided to not pursue computer vision as a field. It’s such an interesting technology. But this kind of thing is what it will be put towards. They’ll eventually export the technique to their friends, though we have a version of it at the airport already.
not just the airport, pretty sure they have it at the mall now
I’ve heard it’s been used in the UK to ban shoplifters. The false positive rate in that is pretty high (makes sense if you think about it, 99.9% accuracy still means you’re going to falsely ban a couple people a day in a busy store), especially if they fall on the wrong side of
The risk isn’t just “what if my field in general is used for evil and I feel bad about it” it’s also “there’s a very high likelihood this field is going to put me in a situation where it’s losing my livelihood or abandoning my morals and I don’t want to have to make that choice”
There’s also ghe argument that being part of it can give you the opportunity to speak against it. Regardless, I don’t blame anyone for making the decision you described. It’s very situational and not at all an easy question to answer.
sure. I just don’t see a lot of historical examples of that working, personally. I guess you could organize your coworkers against the evil shit, but well compensated engineers tend to be pretty morally flexible in my experience, and not easy to meaningfully organize towards any goal.
And as a cog in the machine you are replaceable, and your work up until that point will then continue to be used for ends you have no control over even if you stuck to your principles and quit when asked to participate in something reprehensible. IMO it’s easier to not get into a field that has a lot more potential for genocide than it does for improving society, than it is to minimize your harm once you’re there and basically guarantee you’ll be forced to make very hard morally compromising decisions.
There wouldn’t be historical examples of that happening because if it works then it’s there’s no example to draw from. The closest thing I can come up with is figures like MLk or Gandhi who advocated for better progress and standing in their society while working within it. But I can’t give examples of when this kind of mindset stopped a bad thing from happening in the first place.
There does come a point where you have to cut your losses however. Reminds me of a quote that I’m having trouble digging up where it talks about how there were plenty of good people who were Nazis who tried to steer the direction of what the Germans were doing. The quote ended with essentially saying it didn’t matter what their motivations or intentions were, history just remembers them all as Nazis.
you aren’t going to do jack shit, the system changes you you don’t change the system. The “reform from the inside” myth is extremely silly and naive unless you are actively doing sabotage and espionage as a fifth column, that’s about the only time it’s valid.
A lot of societal progress is done from within. Women’s suffrage, MLK or Malcolm X with black rights, Gandhi with Indias independence. These things do happen.
When I heard about Project Nimbus I imagined this was the use case. Cloud computing to catalogue all Palestinians and identify targets. You’re automating oppression and ethnic cleansing at this point.
This is sadly why I just decided to not pursue computer vision as a field. It’s such an interesting technology. But this kind of thing is what it will be put towards. They’ll eventually export the technique to their friends, though we have a version of it at the airport already.
not just the airport, pretty sure they have it at the mall now
I’ve heard it’s been used in the UK to ban shoplifters. The false positive rate in that is pretty high (makes sense if you think about it, 99.9% accuracy still means you’re going to falsely ban a couple people a day in a busy store), especially if they fall on the wrong side of
It’ll happen regardless of whether or not you’re in the field. Don’t let that stop you.
The risk isn’t just “what if my field in general is used for evil and I feel bad about it” it’s also “there’s a very high likelihood this field is going to put me in a situation where it’s losing my livelihood or abandoning my morals and I don’t want to have to make that choice”
There’s also ghe argument that being part of it can give you the opportunity to speak against it. Regardless, I don’t blame anyone for making the decision you described. It’s very situational and not at all an easy question to answer.
sure. I just don’t see a lot of historical examples of that working, personally. I guess you could organize your coworkers against the evil shit, but well compensated engineers tend to be pretty morally flexible in my experience, and not easy to meaningfully organize towards any goal.
And as a cog in the machine you are replaceable, and your work up until that point will then continue to be used for ends you have no control over even if you stuck to your principles and quit when asked to participate in something reprehensible. IMO it’s easier to not get into a field that has a lot more potential for genocide than it does for improving society, than it is to minimize your harm once you’re there and basically guarantee you’ll be forced to make very hard morally compromising decisions.
There wouldn’t be historical examples of that happening because if it works then it’s there’s no example to draw from. The closest thing I can come up with is figures like MLk or Gandhi who advocated for better progress and standing in their society while working within it. But I can’t give examples of when this kind of mindset stopped a bad thing from happening in the first place.
There does come a point where you have to cut your losses however. Reminds me of a quote that I’m having trouble digging up where it talks about how there were plenty of good people who were Nazis who tried to steer the direction of what the Germans were doing. The quote ended with essentially saying it didn’t matter what their motivations or intentions were, history just remembers them all as Nazis.
yeah cuz they didn’t do anything lol.
History does remember defectors and saboteurs if the news gets out.
Becoming a war criminal to own the libs from the inside
More like trying to stop war crimes from happening to begin with. Doesn’t always work admittedly but we should try to where we can.
you aren’t going to do jack shit, the system changes you you don’t change the system. The “reform from the inside” myth is extremely silly and naive unless you are actively doing sabotage and espionage as a fifth column, that’s about the only time it’s valid.
A lot of societal progress is done from within. Women’s suffrage, MLK or Malcolm X with black rights, Gandhi with Indias independence. These things do happen.
Way too late. But I’m happy with what I ended up in, regardless.
Glad to hear it.
Skynet is here