AI can now read emotions—but should it?
The report released by AI Now sheds light on some ways in which AI is being applied to the workforce in order to evaluate worker productivity and even as early as at the interview stage. Analyzing footage from interviews, especially for remote job-seekers, is already underway. If managers can get a sense of their subordinates' emotions from interview to evaluation, decision-making regarding other employment matters such as raises, promotions or assignments might end up being influenced by that information. But there are many other ways that this technology could be used.
Why the worry
These types of systems almost always have fairness, accountability, transparency and ethical ("FATE") flaws baked into their pattern-matching. For example, one study found that facial recognition algorithms rated faces of black people as angrier than white faces, even when they were smiling.
As the AI Now report highlights: "Despite the increase in AI ethics content … ethical principles and statements rarely focus on how AI ethics can be implemented and whether they're effective." It notes that such AI ethics statements largely ignore questions of how, where, and who will put such guidelines into operation.
There are useful applications however, for instance in helping spot warning signs to prevent youth suicide and detecting drunk drivers. That's one reason why even concerned researchers, regulators and citizens have generally stopped short of calling for blanket bans on AI-related technologies.
It's also well-known that humans tend to trust these systems more than other authority figures.
See the full story here: https://techxplore.com/news/2020-01-ai-emotionsbut.html?fbclid=IwAR3_G9XcmtctRqcGVunM46jHjPaw_ZRbGx-tfFUhGYgCqN8yZghrn-EGDEg
The photo is of Steve Jurvetson and his dad. He posted this on Facebook;
It reminds me of Yuval Noah Harari’s warning in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century: “AI is now beginning to outperform humans in the understanding of human emotions. In particular, AI can be better at jobs that demand intuitions about other people.
Feelings guide not just voters but their leaders as well. This reliance on the heart might prove to be the Achilles’ heel of liberal democracy. For once somebody (whether in Beijing or San Francisco) gains the technological ability to hack and manipulate the human heart, democratic politics will mutate into an emotional puppet show.”
Snapchat quietly acquired AI Factory, the company behind its new Cameos feature, for $166M
After acquiring Ukraine startup Looksery in 2015 to supercharge animated selfie lenses in Snapchat — arguably changing the filters game for all social video and photo apps — Snap has made another acquisition with roots in the country, co-founded by one of Looksery’s founders, to give a big boost to its video capabilities.
The company has acquired AI Factory, a computer vision startup that Snap had worked with to create Snapchat’s new Cameos animated selfie-based video feature, for a price believed to be in the region of $166 million.
Cameos, launched last month, lets you take a selfie, which is then automatically “animated” and inserted into a short video. The selection of videos, currently around 150, is created by Snap, with the whole concept not unlike the one underpinning “deepfakes” — AI-based videos that look “real” but are actually things that never really happened.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/03/snapchat-quietly-acquired-ai-factory-the-company-behind-its-new-cameos-feature-for-166m/
The Biggest XR Stories Of The Year, by Charlie Fink
XR’s has three nascent but truly giant categories developing quietly in the background that will be deeply disruptive: Telepresence, being co-present in a distant place with one or more people, Volumetric Capture, 3D live-action videos, and Dimensional Displays or, 3D without glasses. Coming to a television set near you.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2020/12/30/the-biggest-xr-stories-of-the-year/#26f2ae0970ab
ByteDance & TikTok have secretly built a deepfakes maker
TikTok parent company ByteDance has built technology to let you insert your face into videos starring someone else. TechCrunch has learned that ByteDance has developed an unreleased feature using life-like deepfakes technology that the app’s code refers to as Face Swap. Code in both TikTok and its Chinese sister app Douyin asks users to take a multi-angle biometric scan of their face, then choose from a selection of videos they want to add their face to and share.
Most problematic has been Chinese deepfakes app Zao, which uses artificial intelligence to blend one person’s face into another’s body as they move and synchronize their expressions. Zao went viral in September despite privacy and security concerns about how users’ facial scans might be abused. Zao was previously blocked by China’s WeChat for presenting “security risks.” [Correction: While “Zao” is mentioned in the discovered code, it refers to the general concept rather than a partnership between ByteDance and Zao.]
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/03/tiktok-deepfakes-face-swap/
How to find the Disney, Pokemon, and Harry Potter filters on Instagram
https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/instagram/150575-how-to-get-the-disney-pokemon-and-harry-potter-character-filters-on-instagram