ohai a machine learning system that can identify ~69% of protesters who are wearing caps AND scarfs to cover their face. h/t @jackclarksfpic.twitter.com/ct3NvBL2BW
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There are things to be said about academics doing this research, but the center of gravity here is outside academia—may be even outside US.
Historically, nation-states have LONG figured out how to turn anonymity against protesters—informants, misinformation etc. Clear record but+
..the problem is different even if one understands how & why anonymity in protests almost always backfires and easily manipulated by states+
With ML, we have classifiers/categorizers *in the hands of power* that work well enough to suss out what you did NOT disclose. Big big deal.
And ML is the worst combo: High enough validity to be hard to resist use; high false & positive negatives *and* hard to tell which is which.
I should go back to food tweets before I start babbling about Leni Riefenstahl?
If you are in AI/tech, you have to pick a historical side.
Let me say: too many worry about what AI—as if some independent entity—will do to us. Too few people worry what *power* will do *with* AI.
That's why so many articles about chess and AI etc. Intellectual/political lack of imagination partly due to the narrow slice of writers.
And that is why we must broaden the thinkers & political people in this space. I love my geek tribe and my academic tribe—but so so limited.
Intellectually, we need more historians & humanists who ALSO get the tech; politically, we need people who grok what state-power means.
A few additions. Paper below. Paper isn't that great. Not the point--it's the direction that's worrying.https://twitter.com/jackclarkSF/status/904706379897741313 …
Also—AI threat isn't to protest since gov'ts know well anonymous protests very easy to to disrupt/subvert/misdirect. Threat is to *dissent*.
There is a reason many movements that face deep state violence go public and away from anonymity—anonymity plays to gov't strengths. BUT +
For a dissent *ecology* to exist, people need a basic right to privacy, dignity and autonomy. AI in the hands of power threatens all that.
This is a minor paper; narrow, conditional results. But it's the direction & this will be done with nation-state data—not by grad students.
Back to this. Worry not about chess or conscious toasters. Threat is AI at the hands of power: gov'ts, corporations.https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/904707522958852097 …
No, your gait could identify you. A database of clothes purchases. Height. Retina. Not now, but all this is possiblehttps://twitter.com/CassidyGavin/status/904782974285209600 …
People who hope "OPSEC" will work for a growing movement=ppl who've never been in a growing movement facing a state. https://twitter.com/ncweaver/status/904784480224763904 …
Tech world should learn from nurses and librarians. They define *and* take their ethical responsibilities seriously. https://twitter.com/greene_dm/status/903592320544763904 …
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