4 ms·

Face Search Engine Anyone Can Use Is Alarmingly Accurate

8 points by ystad 4y ago

Doches 4y ago
There's an awful lot of hand-wringing in this article -- and I can't say that I disagree. This is alarming technology, the stuff of a mid-tier SF dystopian novel. But while the article is heavy on the alarm it offers...no solutions, no suggestions, nothing beyond a vague hope that some regulatory agency will require PimEyes to...confirm their users' identity (KYC, in other words). Clearly the fact that PimEyes is headquartered in Dubai escaped the editor's geopolitical understanding -- this exists! It's a thing! We can't just bury our heads in the sand and hope the US government buries it under that greatest of American exports, crippling bureaucracy. To be fair, I don't have any solutions either other than "wait for my own generation to die off." But I'd love to hear actionable (or even blue-sky hypothetical!) ideas for how we can deal with our rapidly disappearing right to privacy. I don't think we can reverse this clock -- I'm not even sure we'd want to! -- but is there anything we can do to, I don't know, ameliorate the consequences somehow?
- WalterGR 4y ago
  > But while the article is heavy on the alarm it offers...no solutions, no suggestions, nothing beyond a vague hope Why is it obligated to?
car_analogy 4y ago
Alarmingly accurate? In other articles, mostly about AI bias, the NY Times was alarmed by inaccuracy.
- Doches 4y ago
  I think the takeaway here is that the NYT is just fundamentally _alarmed_ these days, by pretty much anything. Which...feels like a good read on liberalism in general for the last decade or so: it's all panic, all the time.
  - hodgesrm 4y ago
    The NYT is now alarmed by things that happened in previous centuries as well. 1619 Project and the Haiti "Ranson" Project are examples. [0, 1] Not that the subjects are uninteresting, but journalists looking for a scoop don't seem to be the right people to do historical analysis of lasting value. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/23/world/haiti-france-ransom https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/23/world/haiti-france-r...
  - kmos17 4y ago
    And fox news is not alarmed? have you seen their headlines or tucker carlson perma-outraged scowl? Journalism relies on shock, alarm and outrage to sell, got nothing to do with liberalism, at least ny times has some real ground breaking journalism in the middle of all the posturing and virtue signaling.
    - Doches 4y ago
      > And fox news is not alarmed? I thought we were talking about journalism /s All I'm really complaining about in the GP is what seems to be a decline in the quality of the Gray Lady. Feels like we've completed a full-scale return to yellow journalism, regardless of political affiliation.
      - kmos17 4y ago
        :) unfortunately fox news is the primary news source for more people than the ny times. Yes I understand your argument and I think it’s wildly exaggerated, that the ny times’s supposed decline is itself biased distortion. Even the Haiti story you mention is actually quite good journalism, it is relevant to why that country is doing so poorly today. To me this is a story with relevance in the same way as one on looted jewish art during the war would be. Yes the focus on these stories has a political reasoning you may not agree with but to call it yellow journalism is pretty off the mark imo. Where I would be far more critical of the grey lady for example would be their reckless support of the invasion of Iraq for example.
- bergenty 4y ago
  This is a hilarious take to have about the very well researched NYT when there is a literally firehouse of alarmist, panicked drivel that Fox News has been spouting for 30 years.
  - car_analogy 4y ago
    I must have missed where in my comment I held up Fox as the ideal of journalism - perhaps you could point it out to me?
    - bergenty 4y ago
      That’s the unfortunate effect of living in a binary, divided political system. If you criticize one “side” without acknowledging the pus filled shitspout on the other side that’s how it’s going to be interpreted.

8 points by ystad 4y ago

There's an awful lot of hand-wringing in this article -- and I can't say that I disagree. This is alarming technology, the stuff of a mid-tier SF dystopian novel. But while the article is heavy on the alarm it offers...no solutions, no suggestions, nothing beyond a vague hope that some regulatory agency will require PimEyes to...confirm their users' identity (KYC, in other words). Clearly the fact that PimEyes is headquartered in Dubai escaped the editor's geopolitical understanding -- this exists! It's a thing! We can't just bury our heads in the sand and hope the US government buries it under that greatest of American exports, crippling bureaucracy. To be fair, I don't have any solutions either other than "wait for my own generation to die off." But I'd love to hear actionable (or even blue-sky hypothetical!) ideas for how we can deal with our rapidly disappearing right to privacy. I don't think we can reverse this clock -- I'm not even sure we'd want to! -- but is there anything we can do to, I don't know, ameliorate the consequences somehow?

WalterGR 4y ago
> But while the article is heavy on the alarm it offers...no solutions, no suggestions, nothing beyond a vague hope Why is it obligated to?

car_analogy 4y ago

Alarmingly accurate? In other articles, mostly about AI bias, the NY Times was alarmed by inaccuracy.

Doches 4y ago
I think the takeaway here is that the NYT is just fundamentally _alarmed_ these days, by pretty much anything. Which...feels like a good read on liberalism in general for the last decade or so: it's all panic, all the time.
- hodgesrm 4y ago
  The NYT is now alarmed by things that happened in previous centuries as well. 1619 Project and the Haiti "Ranson" Project are examples. [0, 1] Not that the subjects are uninteresting, but journalists looking for a scoop don't seem to be the right people to do historical analysis of lasting value. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/23/world/haiti-france-ransom https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/23/world/haiti-france-r...
- kmos17 4y ago
  And fox news is not alarmed? have you seen their headlines or tucker carlson perma-outraged scowl? Journalism relies on shock, alarm and outrage to sell, got nothing to do with liberalism, at least ny times has some real ground breaking journalism in the middle of all the posturing and virtue signaling.
  - Doches 4y ago
    > And fox news is not alarmed? I thought we were talking about journalism /s All I'm really complaining about in the GP is what seems to be a decline in the quality of the Gray Lady. Feels like we've completed a full-scale return to yellow journalism, regardless of political affiliation.
    - kmos17 4y ago
      :) unfortunately fox news is the primary news source for more people than the ny times. Yes I understand your argument and I think it’s wildly exaggerated, that the ny times’s supposed decline is itself biased distortion. Even the Haiti story you mention is actually quite good journalism, it is relevant to why that country is doing so poorly today. To me this is a story with relevance in the same way as one on looted jewish art during the war would be. Yes the focus on these stories has a political reasoning you may not agree with but to call it yellow journalism is pretty off the mark imo. Where I would be far more critical of the grey lady for example would be their reckless support of the invasion of Iraq for example.
bergenty 4y ago
This is a hilarious take to have about the very well researched NYT when there is a literally firehouse of alarmist, panicked drivel that Fox News has been spouting for 30 years.
- car_analogy 4y ago
  I must have missed where in my comment I held up Fox as the ideal of journalism - perhaps you could point it out to me?
  - bergenty 4y ago
    That’s the unfortunate effect of living in a binary, divided political system. If you criticize one “side” without acknowledging the pus filled shitspout on the other side that’s how it’s going to be interpreted.