Google: Our New System For Recognizing Faces Is the Best

schwit1 writes Last week, a trio of Google researchers published a paper on a new artificial intelligence system dubbed FaceNet that it claims represents the most accurate approach yet to recognizing human faces. FaceNet achieved nearly 100-percent accuracy on a popular facial-recognition dataset called Labeled Faces in the Wild, which includes more than 13,000 pictures of faces from across the web. Trained on a massive 260-million-image dataset, FaceNet performed with better than 86 percent accuracy.

The approach Google's researchers took goes beyond simply verifying whether two faces are the same. Its system can also put a name to a face—classic facial recognition—and even present collections of faces that look the most similar or the most distinct. Every advance in facial recognition makes me think of Paul Theroux's dystopian Ozone.

Comments

why do we continue to do research..

[TheGratefulNet]

on really BAD ideas and freedom-killing ideas?

you don't think this will be mostly used against us, one way or another?

do no evil? yeah, right. I have this bridge here I can sell you...

yet another example of 'lets plow ahead and not care about social blowback from our research'. scientists and engineers really need to go back to school and take an ETHICS course or two. maybe they'd realize that 'because you can, does not mean you should'.

I see nothing good coming from this. nothing at all. just pure evil to be used against people.

it takes a wise person to realize that some things should not be done. of course, google has geniuses but those geniuses have no idea at all how they are being played and how their work will be used to reduce freedom and privacy. sad that smart people can be conned into working against their own best interests ;(

Re:why do we continue to do research..

[TFlan91]

Scientists and engineers are by definition not supposed to be ethical.

You and I, as private citizens, take what they produce, determine if it's ethical/profitable/whatever, and act accordingly. Whether that is enacting a law banning said product, regulating it, or saying let the market do with it as it pleases.

As a programmer, I applaud their skill, and even more so that they were able to complete what they set out to do. As a programmer, I understand why we celebrate these type of stories.

As a private citizen, I do fear for my privacy.

But do not confuse the two perspectives.

Re:why do we continue to do research..

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it is unnecessary to say the two are exclusive of each other. Of course my opinion: but I feel like scientists and engineers should have an ethical responsibility for what they create, and have the forethought and wisdom to think of its potential usages and then weigh the pros and cons.
The destruction possible through malpractice of technology, programming, and engineering is magnitudes greater than many other disciplines. That was the gist of what I learned in my ethics of computer science classes.

Real Names

[thegoldenear]

Now do you understand Google+'s initial policy on real names?

Pete Boyd

Re:Somehow I don't feel like celebrating

[Opportunist]

Hmm... you're right, we have to get that under control.

Get the PR dept to slap together a press kit. What we need is footage of some murderers and generally insane people with neckbeards. Make sure that you add a few shots of those islamist loonies, they're full of face wool, too. Tell them to not waste all their powder on one shot, have them release it slowly so it can sink in with the targets. Try to get that Stallman guy in there too, somehow, that way we might get a shot at that open source stuff where we can't sensibly include our backdoors. At least with the boomers it should stick, they know jack about computers but trust the TV.

Networks should gobble this up without asking, it's free news, that's all they care about.

For the millennials, try to get the story into one of those "10 things you didn't know" pages. Slap something together about 10 things you don't know about neckbeards, 10 most heinous murderers (of course you pick the neckbeard fraction), get creative! They'll love it.

Find celebrities and make sure they hate beards. Beards have to become "uncool". Only clean shaven guys get the chicks. And guys, let's not forget the fags.

Get back to me when this is rolling, maybe we don't even have to do more.