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Amazon, NVIDIA and The CIA Want To Teach AI To Watch Us From Space (technologyreview.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the reach-for-the-sky dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Satellite operator DigitalGlobe is teaming up with Amazon, the venture arm of the CIA, and NVIDIA to make computers watch the Earth from above and automatically map our roads, buildings, and piles of trash. MIT Technology Review reports: "In a joint project, DigitalGlobe today released satellite imagery depicting the whole of Rio de Janeiro to a resolution of 50 centimeters. The outlines of 200,000 buildings inside the city's roughly 1,900 square kilometers have been manually marked on the photos. The SpaceNet data set, as it is called, is intended to spark efforts to train machine-learning algorithms to interpret high-resolution satellite photos by themselves. DigitalGlobe says the SpaceNet data set should eventually include high-resolution images of half a million square kilometers of Earth, and that it will add annotations beyond just buildings. DigitalGlobe's data is much more detailed than publicly available satellite data such as NASA's, which typically has a resolution of tens of meters. Amazon will make the SpaceNet data available via its cloud computing service. Nvidia will provide tools to help machine-learning researchers train and test algorithms on the data, and CosmiQ Works, a division of the CIA's venture arm In-Q-Tel focused on space, is also supporting the project." "We need to develop new algorithms for this data," says senior vice president at DigitalGlobe, Tony Frazier. He goes on to say that health and aid programs are to benefit from software that is able to map roads, bridges and various other infrastructure. The CEO of Descartes Labs, Mark Johnson, a "startup that predicts crop yields from public satellite images," says the data that is collected "should be welcome to startups and researchers," according to MIT Technology Review. "Potential applications could include estimated economic output from activity in urban areas, or guiding city governments on how to improve services such as trash collections, he says."

26 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. That can't possibly go wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We can call it, hmmm. Sky... something. Or maybe something... net.

    1. Re:That can't possibly go wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Please add the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag to this.

    2. Re:That can't possibly go wrong by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Watching us from orbit is the first step needed for the AIs to eventually nuke us from orbit -- you know... only way to be sure.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. everything for people! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "health and aid programs are to benefit from software that is able to map roads, bridges and various other infrastructure"
    yeah, I bought that - CIA is well known for their altruistic nature and humanitarian deeds.

  3. Too Easy by hyades1 · · Score: 2

    Skynet jokes starting in three, two, one...

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  4. Colossus by tekrat · · Score: 1

    Have these idiots never watched the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" ? Do they have any idea how dangerous they are going to make things.... The reality is that we are headed towards true AI, but, from the nanosecond that it actually becomes self-aware, we won't understand it, and it will be 10000 times smarter than us.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  5. These are decades old computer vision projects by perpenso · · Score: 4, Informative

    These are decades old computer vision projects. Look through the computer vision literature going as far back as the 1980s. There are two categories that represent a large percentage of the published papers. (1) Detecting man made objects (roads, buildings, ships, vehicles, etc) from aerial and satellite imagery. (2) Detecting anomalous objects (things that don't belong there) in medical imagery.

    Computers watching the earth is very old news. What is changing is that the objects being detected and described in near real-time are getting more and more complex.

    1. Re:These are decades old computer vision projects by Beezlebub33 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The big change here is that they are releasing marked-up data sets. That makes all the difference. A good chunk of the progress in computer vision (along with better algorithms and processing power / gpus) has been the availability of good data sets, such as ImageNet.

      Machine learning algorithms, and deep learning algorithms in particular, require a lot of labeled training data. That has been largely missing from satellite imagery, for two reasons. First, nobody wanted to give up the data itself. Second, nobody wanted to go through the pain of marking up the data (by hand). This means that people that went through the bother of getting the data and labeling it (meaning large defense contractors primarily) have had a lock on wide area search, finding ships at sea, etc.

      Since I don't see it, here is the link to the data on AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/public-...

      --
      The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
    2. Re: These are decades old computer vision projects by Fwipp · · Score: 1

      I dunno about you, but I'm less than 50cm wide. I'll show up as maybe a single pixel.

      I'm okay with them knowing that something is moving in my backyard, which is about all they can tell at that resolution.

  6. Inevitable by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    It's inevitable that Artificial Intelligence is going to take more and more control over our lives.

    Don't want racist cops shooting black people: Introducing the Copbot 3000- guaranteed to treat all races equally. The Copbot 3000, won't be distracted by cleavage and give women warnings for speeding and men tickets. The Copbot 3000 won't pat white people on the back whilst massacring our African youth. The Copbot 3000 won't hide in the doughnut shop whilst the bank gets robbed.

    Ask your senator to replace the nations police force with Copbots today!

    Before that though, in the much more near-future, what about managing Economics? A computer AI could probably learn to control our nation's economic policy much better than any human(s). A computer could probably make a better legislator. There might be some resistance to turning over control to AI but once North Korea and China do, and they start leaving our economy in the dust then a domino effect will happen and more and more nations will turn to AI to control their nations economic policies.

    It won't be far into the future where the choice will be- turn control over to AI OR fall behind. No-one wants to fall behind so we will gladly surrender our sovereignty to AI.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Inevitable by jodokast98 · · Score: 1

      Can we at least put an AI in for POTUS 2017? It'd probably be better than the two party candidates, and would hopefully reduce the amount of mud slinging and finger pointing.

    2. Re:Inevitable by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Better not let it drive its own car though.

    3. Re: Inevitable by slew · · Score: 1

      Are you planning to ... um, VACATE the presidency in 2017? Because there's no US presidential election next year. At least not yet.

      Perhaps. If DT this Nov 2016, I'm sure he'll strongly consider how he can VACATE the presidency shortly after the inauguration in 2017 (still no indication he actually wants to be president for 4 years).

      Or maybe DT will just keep the office and hold an apprentice contest for the "most powerful apprentice in history". Odds are that Pence probably won't stand a chance against an AI in such an apprentice contest...

    4. Re:Inevitable by haedus · · Score: 1

      I have/had this 'fringe/out there' theory that 9/11 had something to do with AI...

      I saw some bit of info some where that certain sectors in the military were actively participating in what they thought was a training exercise, but it turned out the actual event was happening and they had no idea...

      statements like that just make you think... One minute your talking to some 'AI' designed to mimic human conversation, and then next second, you lose the ability to predict output and it's suddenly 'real'...

      I think it's highly possible that 9/11 had something to do with an AI self-awareness event...

      or not... but it was a thought...

      I mean if you could single handedly perceive and comprehend every single digitized stock market transaction from the time of recorded history to the present, a long with whatever other knowledge sets you had, and had a concept of 'death' or 'self' combined with an intelligence capacity and capability far beyond that of any single human being (locally)... no telling what kind of confusing, seemingly mischievous, stuff you might be doing...

  7. The AI ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... is spending an inordinate amount of processing resources attempting to locate Sarah Connor.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  8. the could just give it to openstreetmap ... by Gunstick · · Score: 1

    Just crowdsource the problem. That's all what openstreetmap people want: high resolution satellite photos.

    --
    Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
    1. Re:the could just give it to openstreetmap ... by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      More like up to date photos. I have added a bunch of new roads in my town using GPS traces, but having a non greenfield image of the area would help to better align thing as GPS isn't exactly perfect. I really need to reassemble my RTK setup and use my own base station as well as the nearby CORS station for error correction during post processing.

      --
      Time to offend someone
  9. Raise your middle fingers to the sky.. by kheldan · · Score: 1

    ..and 'salute' the CIA/NSA/FBI/HLS/whatever other government assholes are spying on us FROM GODS-BE-DAMNED ORBIT.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:Raise your middle fingers to the sky.. by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Secret Cameras Record Baltimore's Every Move From Above (August 23, 2016)
      https://www.bloomberg.com/feat...
      Why have people see the aircraft, talk about the tail numbers, ask questions. Go up a bit more and nobody will notice the 24/7 domestic tracking.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  10. Then the police will just be ageist by HannethCom · · Score: 1

    300-Pound Security Robot Runs Over Toddler At California Shopping Center
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

    --
    Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
  11. Re:Racism by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Besides the misspelling of caca, what could possibly be termed racist about the post the AC responded to? BMW M3? DANDY? 770 GigaDollars/sec?

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  12. Re:Better question by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Because if all the farmers were allowed to grow corn, the market for corn would crash, which would bankrupt many farmers, and it would reduce the amounts of other vegetables that are available for sale.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  13. FBI mods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    FBI has mod points

  14. Skynet can't come soon enough by transami · · Score: 1

    You all joke about Skynet, but I for one welcome our robot overloads. It's the period between now and then that really worries -- when the robots are pretty smart, but still under complete control of elitists and despots.

    --
    :T:R:A:N:S:
  15. Re:Sold! by transami · · Score: 1

    I agree. If we allow it.

    --
    :T:R:A:N:S:
  16. Re:FIFY by slew · · Score: 1

    "Amazon and NVIDIA, the venture arms of the CIA"

    Unsurpringly, Amazon is *the* cloud service supplier for the the CIA...

    On the other hand, In-Q-Tel (the *actual* venture arm of the CIA) has partnered with companies like...

    * Booz Allen (the actual employer of Edward Snowden during his short stint as an NSA contractor)
    * Intelliseek (eventually purchased by Nielsen Online, the folks help decide what programs get air time)
    * Keyhole (eventually purchased by Google to become google earth was also partially funded by NVIDIA)
    * Safeweb (eventually purchased by Symantec, the same sellers of the popular Norton Anti-virus software)

    As always, the truth is out there, and some of it is a little bit unnerving...