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> And perhaps it should... if average people have the technology now, how long has it been in the hands of police departments, newspapers, militaries, and intel

> And perhaps it should... if average people have the technology now, how long has it been in the hands of police departments, newspapers, militaries, and intelligence agencies? To be honest with you, when I was younger I bought into this. Nowadays....it kinda seems like with the open source community, consumers are getting stuff first. Not always, of course, but often enough. And police departments are one category that I can be quite certain are lagging behind, they are definitely not getting stuff before consumers have it.

tboyd47 9y ago
You're right, lumping police departments and newspapers in with intelligence agencies is pretty silly.
lione 9y ago
The longer time goes on, the more you realize that what companies can get to the public in a year for $1000, takes 10 years and a multi-billion dollar contract for any government (other then priority bureaus like NSA) to obtain. Like good luck getting anything through government bureaucracy and shitty subcontractors.
throwaway287391 9y ago
Yes. As a grad student in ML, on a few occasions I worked with sponsors under the US military trying to help them use some code from projects I'd open sourced, and it was always a struggle. Frankly, the suggestion that government agencies -- let alone local police departments -- have sophistication in AI/ML years ahead of publicly known work from academia, industry, or even side projects on reddit, will verge on comical to anyone who's actually worked with these folks.
jessaustin 9y ago
You're not talking about a monolith. Sure, if you've met 20 cops, it's unlikely that you've met any cops who are technological geniuses. Most LEOs haven't had a reason compelling enough to figure out how to fake a video. Can we be sure that no LEOs have? If we can be sure of that, can we also be sure that no intelligence agencies have? That seems unlikely.
- pixl97 9y ago
  Or to say it another way. Only a few cops will have the ability to edit videos, the problem is almost all cops in his department will lie for that officer on the stand.

tboyd47 9y ago

You're right, lumping police departments and newspapers in with intelligence agencies is pretty silly.

lione 9y ago

The longer time goes on, the more you realize that what companies can get to the public in a year for $1000, takes 10 years and a multi-billion dollar contract for any government (other then priority bureaus like NSA) to obtain. Like good luck getting anything through government bureaucracy and shitty subcontractors.

throwaway287391 9y ago

Yes. As a grad student in ML, on a few occasions I worked with sponsors under the US military trying to help them use some code from projects I'd open sourced, and it was always a struggle. Frankly, the suggestion that government agencies -- let alone local police departments -- have sophistication in AI/ML years ahead of publicly known work from academia, industry, or even side projects on reddit, will verge on comical to anyone who's actually worked with these folks.

jessaustin 9y ago

You're not talking about a monolith. Sure, if you've met 20 cops, it's unlikely that you've met any cops who are technological geniuses. Most LEOs haven't had a reason compelling enough to figure out how to fake a video. Can we be sure that no LEOs have? If we can be sure of that, can we also be sure that no intelligence agencies have? That seems unlikely.

pixl97 9y ago
Or to say it another way. Only a few cops will have the ability to edit videos, the problem is almost all cops in his department will lie for that officer on the stand.