Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

newscientist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 94 posts

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

#51

Post by my_city »

alvarezbjm-hn wrote: post #35
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.

Please locate Honk Kong in a map. Tell me in what world Honk Kong is comparable in any way to Puerto Rico or some random british colony

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

#52

Post by richbell »

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…

> Shame on the West for such blatant imperialist attempt at meddling with chinese internal affairs.

Shame on you for creating a throwaway account defending China's brutal authoritarian regime with whataboutisms.

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

#53

Post by chrisseaton »

richbell wrote: post #49
chrisseaton wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why wouldn't oppressive regimes that are arresting dissidents review footage of dissidents that makes them look bad? Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people.

> Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people. How can you tell? The entire point of the GP's comment is that they could be mistaken. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33735239

> How can you tell?

They literally say so in the documentary.

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

#54

Post by dmix »

richbell wrote: post #49
chrisseaton wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why wouldn't oppressive regimes that are arresting dissidents review footage of dissidents that makes them look bad? Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people.

> Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people. How can you tell? The entire point of the GP's comment is that they could be mistaken. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33735239

This ignores how information spreads. Given how unlikely a randomly generated face will match a relevant person in a local area related to the protest or gov, that means the AI technology will also be widespread (otherwise it’s statically a non-problem because it will be significantly even more unlikely to happen IRL).

If it is widespread then the government workers doing facial recognition should be keenly aware of its existence and adapt by seeking photos from non-activist/protected sources… like the thousands of photos posted on social media after every protest.

The bad government doesn’t want to be arresting random people either they want the real ones.

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

#55

Post by richbell »

chrisseaton wrote: post #53
richbell wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people. How can you tell? The entire point of the GP's comment is that they could be mistaken. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33735239

> How can you tell? They literally say so in the documentary.

That doesn't stop clips from this or future videos that use this technique from being taken out of context.

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

#56

Post by brookst »

movedx wrote: post #50
hjanssen wrote: post #39

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. Inter…

> Interesting question if that is ethical or not. It's likely not ethical, and I'm confident it's probably illegal. For example, can you setup a billboard at the side of a highway with Tom Hank's face on it and a quote that speaks to anti-trans rights, has a homophobic remark, or perhaps an anti-CCP statement? Probably not. I'd say this is no different.

I didn’t see anything indicating whether or not the actors had licensed their likeness for this use. Wouldn’t that matter?

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

#57

Post by vanviegen »

my_city wrote: post #48
alvarezbjm-hn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

China has not reached the level of brutality that the british inflicred upon the world, not by far. But there is also a key difference: Honk Kong is China. China didn't invade Honk Kong, is not a colony, is simply another chinese region. What bussiness did the british have in India? Would you consider India a "legitimate" british territory, or a colony? Same with Puerto Rico, it is a colony, what bussiness does the U…

Yes, colonialism was bad. It should not have happened. We should not let it happen again.

In general, we shouldn't be suppressing people. When a nation needs to use violence to force a region to come/remain within its union, without even a fair vote, that nation is on the bad side of history in my eyes.

And yes, my country has engaged in such misbehavior as recently as 60 years ago. I'm sorry on behalf of my country. Let's never do that again.

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

#58

Post by richbell »

dmix wrote: post #54
richbell wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because the faces aren’t real? They want to arrest dissidents not random people. How can you tell? The entire point of the GP's comment is that they could be mistaken. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33735239

This ignores how information spreads. Given how unlikely a randomly generated face will match a relevant person in a local area related to the protest or gov, that means the AI technology will also be widespread (otherwise it’s statically a non-problem because it will be significantly even more unlikely to happen IRL). If it is widespread then the government workers doing facial recognition should be keenly aware of…

FWIW I agree. We are dangerously close to living in a world where you cannot trust any videos, pictures, or audio.

I just think that this approach is perhaps more 'cool' than it is useful, it makes me think of Mr. Swirl[0] who got caught because of a fancy effect. Is face-swapping an actor's face really better than just using the actor outright?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Paul_Neil

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

#59

Post by ethbr0 »

movedx wrote: post #50
hjanssen wrote: post #39

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. Inter…

> Interesting question if that is ethical or not. It's likely not ethical, and I'm confident it's probably illegal. For example, can you setup a billboard at the side of a highway with Tom Hank's face on it and a quote that speaks to anti-trans rights, has a homophobic remark, or perhaps an anti-CCP statement? Probably not. I'd say this is no different.

It depends on the country.

IANAL, but in the US you'd need (a) rights to the image being used (e.g. shot yourself, in public) & (b) a damn good argument that your juxtaposition of their likeness and your words doesn't cause them monetary damages (e.g. in the form of lost revenue from reputation).

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

#60

Post by vanviegen »

my_city wrote: post #47
kybernetyk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There is only one wrong, which is the story of western nations (the british mainly, but all of Europe to a lesser extent) and non western (Japan) colonizing, invading, and exploiting China as a colony. Honk Kong was taken from China and only restituted in 1997. That the BBC, the main promoter of british colonialism talks about the honk kong protests as if they were some "heroic" people, is just imperialism in the 21t…

In your opinion, do nations have the irrevocable right to rule over every region they once possessed? Even if the region's population doesn't want it to? And what if the region has, during an important part of its history, been an independent state? Where do you draw the 'disgusting imperialism' line?
Post reply on HN