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UK Police's Porn-Spotting AI Keeps Mistaking Desert Pics for Nudes (gizmodo.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the sand-in-the-gears dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Gizmodo: London's Metropolitan Police believes that its artificial intelligence software will be up to the task of detecting images of child abuse in the next "two to three years." But, in its current state, the system can't tell the difference between a photo of a desert and a photo of a naked body... "Sometimes it comes up with a desert and it thinks its an indecent image or pornography," Mark Stokes, the department's head of digital and electronics forensics, recently told The Telegraph. "For some reason, lots of people have screen-savers of deserts and it picks it up thinking it is skin colour."
The article concludes that the London police software "has yet to prove that it can successfully differentiate the human body from arid landscapes."

14 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. I guess it's down to camels now: by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Funny

    One hump, or two?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:I guess it's down to camels now: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Pregnant!

    2. Re:I guess it's down to camels now: by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      Beavis: That chick has three boobies!

      Butthead: That's her belly fartknocker.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  2. Eeeeeh?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ""For some reason, lots of people have screen-savers of desert"

    Are they really openly admitting to RAT-surveilling everyone?! What am I missing?

  3. UK police scanning your screen saver images! by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WTF are police doing scanning the images used for screen savers? Those aren't, generally, on a public server.

    It the UK cops have a trojan on UK computers, I think the rest of the world should get to work burying their servers in noise. Antivirus definitions need updating ASAP.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:UK police scanning your screen saver images! by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

      Who is General Failure and what is he doing reading my hard drive?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:UK police scanning your screen saver images! by Sesostris+III · · Score: 2

      Reading the articles it seems that the police are using the AI to search through the machines of _suspects_. This implies that they have custody of the suspect's physical machines.

      --
      You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake
    3. Re:UK police scanning your screen saver images! by QRDeNameland · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just hope they don't call in Colonel Panic.

      --
      Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  4. BARE NAKED DUNES WAITING FOR YOU! by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    African, Asian, European desert lands all uncovered and untouched by man. Clean shaven of all foliage. Aching for a BBC (big black camera) to shoot all over their majestic vistas. They want long lenses and offer roads for deep penetrations into their wildest areas. Only $9.95/mo gets you all access to hours of video and thousands of pictures. Round, brown mounds of dirt, golden, flowing sands, fiery red sunsets are all waiting for you!

  5. The big question by Teun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The big question is why the hell do they bother to detect nudes?
    I would even ask why the hell do they want to spot pornography?

    Both are very common human expressions and they should not be a reason for police investigation.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    1. Re:The big question by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think what they are looking for specifically are images of Child Sexual Abuse.

      Well, if they're doing it by looking for a superabundance of Caucasian skin tones, they're doing a fucking horrible job of it. And apparently black kids don't count.

  6. Legit usage by Ecuador · · Score: 4, Funny

    There is legit usage cases for this software. I, for one, would not trust people who jack off to images of deserts. They should be put on some police list of some sort, so that I know to avoid them.

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  7. It's a simple coding error by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Funny

    DUNE is a misspelling of NUDE.

    1. Re:It's a simple coding error by Calydor · · Score: 2

      Oh, it gets better.

      The series was translated into my native language. The titles as well.

      Do you know what a dune is called in Danish?

      Klit.

      I'm not joking.

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