What Happens When Wild West Innovation Operates without Barbed Wires to Corral the Doggies?
June 1, 2022
I have seen quite a few comments about a facial recognition company called PimEyes. My hunch is that ClearView.ai is happy to see that another magnet for commentary has surfaced. The write up I found interesting was “The Facial Recognition Search Engine Apocalypse Is Coming.” The cited article points to the New York Times’ exposé of a high tech outfit the NYT professionals did not know much about. Dispersing this cloud of unknowing allows for comments about the negatives associated with facial recognition. Security benefits related to entering a building with restricted access? Well, not a factor.
Here’s the comment I found in the cited article that edges closer to a substantive issue:
I’d never heard of PimEyes before, but suspect we’ll be hearing about it more going forward. I also suspect this is a losing game of whack-a-mole. Machine learning is clearly already good enough to do this with spooky accuracy, and it’s only going to get better. Should we try passing legislation to strictly regulate facial recognition search? Sure. But I suspect it’s futile, particularly given the global nature of the internet.
With few consequences and no government-generated guidelines, what will high school science club members do when they leave behind rocket motors and Raspberry Pi spy cameras? These clever lads and lassies do pretty much whatever they want.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? My hunch is that guidelines, like the wonky sonnet form Willie Shakespeare followed, can improve innovation and possibly spill over into adulting thought about a particular capability. Right now, stampede those cows, partner! It may not be an apocalypse, but those hooves can do some damage to humanoids who are in the path of progress.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2022
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