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BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

newscientist.com

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Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#31

Post by justsomehnguy »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #12
richbell wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a novel approach, but like you've said I think the potential negatives far outweighs the positives. Perhaps they could use obviously fake faces with weird proportions and features? Idk, this seems like a case of using cool flashy tech because it's cool and flashy and not because it's better than the alternative (using an actor to portray the subject, blurring or blacking out the subject's face).

With face recognition software and automated edits they could run any protest footage from autocratic regimes like Iran or China through a filter to obscure everyone's face and replace it with an AI generated one. All it would cost them is a few extra minutes of editing time, I'm not sure if that would be critical in the news business where there's a lot of time pressure. I think that would be a really cool feature t…

I think that would be a really helpful feature to convince Regular Joe what there are protests today in checks notes Eastasia.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#33

Post by my_city »

Why West can promote separatists, terrorists and internal divisions with zero consequences? If Texas had a separatist movement that wanted to start a civil war to secede from the United States do you think it wouldn't be crushed?

The United Kingdom is the worst offender in this, they violently repressed any revolutionary attempt in their colonies.

Honk Kong is a chinese teritory, end of story. Like Texas, or the city of London. If those regions started violent protest to independize, they would be repressed. End of story. Shame on the West for such blatant imperialist attempt at meddling with chinese internal affairs.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#34

Post by kybernetyk »

my_city wrote: post #33

Why West can promote separatists, terrorists and internal divisions with zero consequences? If Texas had a separatist movement that wanted to start a civil war to secede from the United States do you think it wouldn't be crushed? The United Kingdom is the worst offender in this, they violently repressed any revolutionary attempt in their colonies. Honk Kong is a chinese teritory, end of story. Like Texas, or the city…

Two wrongs don't make one right. While your first two paragraphs are correct your conclusion is totally bonkers.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#35

Post by alvarezbjm-hn »

my_city wrote: post #33

Why West can promote separatists, terrorists and internal divisions with zero consequences? If Texas had a separatist movement that wanted to start a civil war to secede from the United States do you think it wouldn't be crushed? The United Kingdom is the worst offender in this, they violently repressed any revolutionary attempt in their colonies. Honk Kong is a chinese teritory, end of story. Like Texas, or the city…

You said "The United Kingdom is the worst offender in this, they violently repressed any revolutionary attempt in their colonies."

And they you said it is fine that China does it?

Hong Kong is more like Puerto Rico than like Texas. However, people from Hong Kong don't want to live under the ccp, while Puerto Ricans complain they arent better integrated to the US.

Go figure.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#36

Post by Aachen »

kristofferc wrote: post #8
coding123 wrote: post #3

What happens if the fake looks like a real person.

Same as what would happen if a real person looked like another real person, I presume.

Until one is made aware that the faces are all fictional, then it becomes very hard to justify any investigation into any particular face.

How likely is a match anyway? My impression is that even with large databases, faces are different enough to not be overwhelmed by hits. But then it's not as if I've used these systems so I don't know.

One step they could take is make one or more properties subtly different so that it definitely matches virtually nobody (plus then all the other features one can randomize).

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#37

Post by Aachen »

Wow, that's cool! For years I've been wondering about all the places my face must have ended up with all the crowdshots people like to take at busy train stations and such; now, I see a way for this issue to become unnecessary as there could be cameras that just replace unnecessary faces. Paving the road to the future!

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#38

Post by UltraViolence »

Why are we still wasting time on this? Hong Kong has been lost. China won. Democracy in HK is dead.

The actions of these freedom protesters are moot and useless. There's no sense reporting on their endeavors as the outcome is clear cut. Most of them will eventually end up in jail, dead or will have fled to the West.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#39

Post by hjanssen »

It says in the article that the faces are swapped with those of actors. Are those something like film actors? Because that would actually be amazing, completely dodging the drawback several commenters here have mentioned that faces of innocent people could be used.

Actors faces are already public. Then again,I would probably be pissed when my face would be used as a mask to say something I might not agree with. Interesting question if that is ethical or not.

Re: BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities

#40

Post by another_story »

UltraViolence wrote: post #38

Why are we still wasting time on this? Hong Kong has been lost. China won. Democracy in HK is dead. The actions of these freedom protesters are moot and useless. There's no sense reporting on their endeavors as the outcome is clear cut. Most of them will eventually end up in jail, dead or will have fled to the West.

You're saying we shouldn't bother looking at history because one side wasn't successful? I don't get this argument.
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