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Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

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Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#31

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think software engineers are this century's key perpetrators of "good intentions." Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

Reminds me of Boston Dynamics. Ten years ago, I was in awe and so entertained when watching their videos. Now, I am terrified and disgusted.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#32
post #5
post #4

“I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.”

Also, that Black Mirror episode. Edit: Turns out it's exactly what the author intended. Damn.

Not exactly “intended”, but rather, for want of a better quote, the person you’ve replied to, chose Ghost In The Shell reference, based on a J.D. Salinger quote.

The “author”, meanwhile, wrote the article we’re discussing in this HN thread.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#33
post #23

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think software engineers are this century's key perpetrators of "good intentions." Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

Unless you have a nearly unique skill set, refusing to build something does not even slightly impede it from getting built.

The age old justification of "if I don't do it, someone else will". You can justify many things with that.

I happen to think this particular technology is cool and it's silly to be afraid of it, but no need to employ that justification.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#34

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think software engineers are this century's key perpetrators of "good intentions." Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

I disagree with your use of guilt by association with Black Mirror.

There are both horrifying and also amazing technologies shown in that show. In terms of masking people in images, that would be the White Christmas episode.

The ability for excellent image segmentation was not the scary technology there, it was the ability for a government to control your vision and hearing at the neural level.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#35
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have a nearly unique skill set, refusing to build something does not even slightly impede it from getting built.

The age old justification of "if I don't do it, someone else will". You can justify many things with that. I happen to think this particular technology is cool and it's silly to be afraid of it, but no need to employ that justification.

But I think some things are justifiable by that argument. A great example of that is the public disclosure of software vulnerabilities. If you’re not malicious, and you find a bad bug, chances are a malicious actor will eventually find the bug too.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#36

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think software engineers are this century's key perpetrators of "good intentions." Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

> Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

But, for example, you could make a chrome extension to remove Trump from all pictures on the internet! I'm sure that type of thing would make a some folks happy.

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The age old justification of "if I don't do it, someone else will". You can justify many things with that. I happen to think this particular technology is cool and it's silly to be afraid of it, but no need to employ that justification.

But I think some things are justifiable by that argument. A great example of that is the public disclosure of software vulnerabilities. If you’re not malicious, and you find a bad bug, chances are a malicious actor will eventually find the bug too.

Doing X to mitigate the harm of someone else with bad intentions doing the same is not in the same category as doing X because "it's cool" or "money".

Re: Automatically “block” people in images using a pretrained neural network

#40
post #18

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think software engineers are this century's key perpetrators of "good intentions." Here's a hint: if you saw it in a dystopic thriller you probably don't need to build it, even out of morbid curiosity.

I have not watched the dystopic thriller you mention, so I don't know what kind of drawbacks you are expecting, but I think this technology might have some useful applications. E.g. an image-upload site could answer requests for deletion on privacy grounds not by taking the whole image down, but by obscuring only parts of the image. Or imagine you're taking a selfie in a crowded place and don't want all those other p…

>I have not watched the dystopic thriller you mention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(Black_Mirror)

Netflix link: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80073158

Worth a watch, and the series is not chronological so no worries about prior knowledge.

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