Facebook AI will keep you from uploading embarrassing photos

www.nbcnews.com...

Let's say you're out drinking with your buddies, things get out of hand, you pull out your smartphone, you take a selfie in the middle of all this drunken revelry, then you take 30 or 40 more, and, without hesitation, you start uploading them to Facebook.

It's a common thing to do. But Yann LeCun aims to stop such unbridled behavior—or at least warn people when they're about to do something they might regret. He wants to build a kind of Facebook digital assistant that will, say, recognize when you're uploading an embarrassingly candid photo of your late-night antics. In a virtual way, he explains, this assistant would tap you on the shoulder and say: "Uh, this is being posted publicly. Are you sure you want your boss and your mother to see this?"

The idea is more than just an idle suggestion. LeCun is the New York University researcher and machine-learning guru who now oversees the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research lab, a team of AI researchers inside the internet giant that spans offices in both California and New York, and this rapidly expanding operation is now laying the basic groundwork for his digital assistant.

"Imagine that you had an intelligent digital assistant which would mediate your interaction with your friends," he says, "and also with content on Facebook."

For some, this is a harrowing proposition. They don't want machines telling them what to do, and they don't want machines identifying their faces and storing them in some distant data center where they can help Facebook, say, target ads. But for LeCun, FAIR's work is about giving you more control over your online identity, not less. He also envisions a Facebook that instantly notifies you when someone you don't know posts your photo to the social network without your approval. "You will have a single point of contact to mediate your interaction but also to protect your private information," he says.

Hmm...I love AI and robotics, but I'm not sure i'm down with the whole AI nanny thing. This is innocent enough now, but we really need to think about how much control over our personal lives we wish to give to machines. I make it a point to never post anything to facebook when I'm out drinking, I don't even open the app. I fear that when we cede such a minimal level of personal responsibility over to machines, we start going down a dangerous path.

I don't need or want an off shoot of Google giving me any advise what so ever about what i might want to say or upload.

A.I in the hands of Google will make our lives become a horror story if we don't stop them.

What is this Facebook everyone is speaking of?

Oh, you mean something I don't use because... why the hell would anyone want that?

I guess this doesn't affect me.

a reply to: AgentShillington

I don't use facebook that much anymore but I do keep a page up to stay in contact. It's actually quite useful as far as events and organizing group functions and what not. Plus I have some pretty far flung family where it's easier to keep in contact with them via facebook than just a phone.

originally posted by: Vdogg
a reply to: AgentShillington

I don't use facebook that much anymore but I do keep a page up to stay in contact. It's actually quite useful as far as events and organizing group functions and what not. Plus I have some pretty far flung family where it's easier to keep in contact with them via facebook than just a phone.

Sacrificing privacy for convenience?

Isn't that the whole point of the original article?

originally posted by: AgentShillington

originally posted by: Vdogg
a reply to: AgentShillington

I don't use facebook that much anymore but I do keep a page up to stay in contact. It's actually quite useful as far as events and organizing group functions and what not. Plus I have some pretty far flung family where it's easier to keep in contact with them via facebook than just a phone.

Sacrificing privacy for convenience?

Isn't that the whole point of the original article?

So I'm guessing you wear a mask to go shopping and perform crazy accents when talking over the phone?

When you choose what is public and what is private about your life (as done in social media), it is not "sacrificing" anything at all. It's a choice and most people don't always feel the need to hide from the rest of the planet.

What's to keep the AI from keeping all the incriminating, career ending photos and using it later for extortion?

Hmmm... that would be a great APP...

How great a tool this would be for psy-ops purposes. "Are you sure you don't agree with the latest government decision? Are you really sure? Think again, your friends might disagree with you!"
Easy way to direct thought and opinion right there.

originally posted by: Cuervo
So I'm guessing you wear a mask to go shopping and perform crazy accents when talking over the phone?

When you choose what is public and what is private about your life (as done in social media), it is not "sacrificing" anything at all. It's a choice and most people don't always feel the need to hide from the rest of the planet.

You're absolutely wrong.

Do phone companies record and catalog the contents of phone conversations? (Some would say "Yes", but those people aren't correct.) Why not? Because there are strict laws in place about what phone companies can and cant do with the information they collect on you.

Facebook doesn't have that type of public oversight and is able to do whatever it wants with your information. Even information that is set to private.

There is a difference between leaving your house and inviting breaches of privacy INTO your home.

Wouldn't it be better if the uploaded pics were held for 24 hours with that "do you really want to...?" question, once the person in question is sober?

originally posted by: Baddogma
What's to keep the AI from keeping all the incriminating, career ending photos and using it later for extortion?

Hmmm... that would be a great APP...

What's to keep them from doing that now without AI? We're all one subpeona away from our archived data being turned over to law enforcement anyway. The absolute only way to not leave a digital trail is to not use the internet at all, which is a damn near impossibility nowadays.

So does it *discourage* you immediately after attempting to upload or maybe hold for 24 hours and then let you confirm? How does it determine what is embarrassing? If it's merely a case of too intoxicated, just have the submitter re-enter a crazy Captcha code like many sites do.

Like this

a reply to: StoutBroux

It uses image recognition software and can tell this difference from your normal face and your drunk face. It probably also uses image recognition to determine if it is a party scene or not. (I.e. Lots of people with alcohol in the pic, etc.)