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Do Neural Nets Dream of Electric Sheep? (aiweirdness.com)

An anonymous reader shares a post: If you've been on the internet today, you've probably interacted with a neural network. They're a type of machine learning algorithm that's used for everything from language translation to finance modeling. One of their specialties is image recognition. Several companies -- including Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook -- have their own algorithms for labeling photos. But image recognition algorithms can make really bizarre mistakes. Microsoft Azure's computer vision API added the above caption and tags. But there are no sheep in the image. None. I zoomed all the way in and inspected every speck. It also tagged sheep in this image. I happen to know there were sheep nearby. But none actually present. Here's one more example. In fact, the neural network hallucinated sheep every time it saw a landscape of this type. What's going on here?

Are neural networks just hyper-vigilant, finding sheep everywhere? No, as it turns out. They only see sheep where they expect to see them. They can find sheep easily in fields and mountainsides, but as soon as sheep start showing up in weird places, it becomes obvious how much the algorithms rely on guessing and probabilities. Bring sheep indoors, and they're labeled as cats. Pick up a sheep (or a goat) in your arms, and they're labeled as dogs.

12 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. I for one ... by houghi · · Score: 2

    I for one welcome our Neurotic Network Overlords.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  2. This is Known... by dcw3 · · Score: 3, Funny

    They can find sheep easily in fields and mountainsides, but as soon as sheep start showing up in weird places, it becomes obvious how much the algorithms rely on guessing and probabilities

    This is known as "profiling". The sheep will protest, especially the black ones.

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    Just another day in Paradise
  3. They don't form proper models by iTrawl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now what is that story where an AI is trained to turn the air on in an alien(?) train station when the train enters the platform? I can't find it on Google.

    The way I remember it the AI is trained, and then left alone and does a great job until one day when it kills all the passengers because it didn't turn the air on. The reason was that the station clock was broken. The AI didn't learn the train-at-platform correlation, but rather the wall clock schedule (I guess those trains were never early or late).

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    "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
    1. Re:They don't form proper models by Calydor · · Score: 2

      Aren't we doing the exact same thing with school students, training them to pass the tests rather than to apply the things they learn in the real world?

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      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  4. I can see the sheep by randomErr · · Score: 2

    You got to remember the algorithms are still relatively primitive. My guess is that in that pictures were geo-tagged in a region known for sheep. It saw the tubes coming out the ground as legs. In the other photo it saw the white rocks in the creek bed as wool with shadows.

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    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  5. Re:This is where prejudices come from by SirGarlon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm with you except for the part about the general rules underlying prejudices being usually correct. I don't believe that is a requirement for human beings to accept the rule. So I would say the "pre" in "prejudice" really means the rule doesn't get tested for accuracy or revised.

    Fundamentally, thinking of deep learning as machine-generated prejudice changes one's enthusiasm for the technology.

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    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
  6. Re:I don't understand by lgw · · Score: 2

    Neural nets do actually work in the way the neurons work, at least abstractly. Sure, the implementation is a bit different, as it's all just a bunch of matrix math and normalization, rather than an analog "wire logic" network, but the computational result is similar. It's more a matter of scale (AI neural nets are quite small) and refinement (who knows how many layers of optimizing-how-to-optimize even a simple animal brain has).

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    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  7. Still of some value by Aurelfell · · Score: 2

    I realized that my three-year-old needed a haircut after the cloud service I use tagged his photo as a picture of a dog.

  8. Algorithm Method by hyades1 · · Score: 2

    "Bring sheep indoors, and they're labeled as cats. Pick up a sheep (or a goat) in your arms, and they're labeled as dogs."

    Run after a sheep with your kilt hoiked up around your chest and they're labeled as Scottish girlfriends.

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    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  9. Re:Dijkstra's wisdom by HeckRuler · · Score: 2

    Do you?

  10. How's life in the hypocrite lane?

  11. Re:Dijkstra's wisdom by mcswell · · Score: 2

    "Does your calculator know or understand mathematics? What about an abacus?" Oooh, for a moment I thought you were going to insult my slide rule.