I'm not sure what's worse: Never seeing another human smile beneath the cold, religious face coverings of the Covid cult, or having all of our faces processed by an advanced A.I. that can identify anyone anywhere with just a glance:
Why is it that every time a sci-fi writer warns us about the dangers of a certain technology, we go out of our dang way to make sure we ignore it?
The controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI reportedly told investors that it aims to collect 100 billion photos—supposedly enough to ensure that almost every human will be in its database.
"Clearview AI is telling investors it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year, enough to ensure 'almost everyone in the world will be identifiable,' according to a financial presentation from December obtained by The Washington Post," the Post reported today. There are an estimated 7.9 billion people on the planet.
I really, really don't want to have Minority Report become reality...
The company is currently "ingesting" 1.5 billion pictures every single month, and with $50 million in investment, it predicts it can compile a database that could identify and categorize every single person on the planet.
How are they getting these photos, you ask?
Remember how people warned for years that YOU are the product when you use free social media?
As the Post noted, "Clearview has built its database by taking images from social networks and other online sources without the consent of the websites or the people who were photographed. Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube have demanded the company stop taking photos from their sites and delete any that were previously taken. Clearview has argued its data collection is protected by the First Amendment."
An Illinois federal judge just threw out the First Amendment argument in one of many lawsuits pending against the company, so that's good. Pretty sure the Founding Fathers didn't envision giant corporations trying to launch Skynet as the basis of inalienable rights.
But the question remains: What do they want to use this technology for?
The increase in photos could be paired with an expanded business model. Clearview "wants to expand beyond scanning faces for the police...
My goodness, that's a terrifying thought.
But not nearly as terrifying as the rest of the sentence.
...saying in the presentation that it could monitor 'gig economy' workers and is researching a number of new technologies that could identify someone based on how they walk, detect their location from a photo or scan their fingerprints from afar...
I feel it's necessary to showcase this clip from the CBS show "Person of Interest," in which an advanced A.I begins tracking undesirables, so you can realize how thoroughly we've been warned about playing these kind of games...
...As well as the literal real-world examples where sci-fi has become reality:
Clearview founder Hoan Ton-That says they've collected images from "millions of different websites," so that's nice.
The tech was used to identify BLM and Antifa rioters in 2020, which didn't garner any favor with the Left, but then it was used to identify your grandma on January 6th when she and her sewing club decided to shuffle through the halls of Congress.
After the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, Ton-That, said, "it is gratifying that Clearview AI has been used to identify the Capitol rioters who attacked our great symbol of democracy."
Are you still wondering how this tech is going to be used by those in power, or would you like to wait to find out yourself?
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
