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Google Tool Lets Any AI App Learn Without Taking All Your Data (cnet.com)

A new computing tool developed by Google will let developers build AI-powered apps. The upside is it's doing so without sucking up all of your information. From a report: Google on Wednesday released TensorFlow Federated, open-source software that incorporates federated learning, an AI training system. It works by using data that's spread out across a lot of devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to teach itself new tricks. But rather than send the data back to a central server for study, it learns on your phone or tablet itself and sends only the lesson back to the app maker.

Federated learning runs "part of the machine learning algorithm right next to where the data is on the device," Alex Ingerman, a product manager at Google Research, said in an interview. The algorithm applies what it already knows to the data on your phone, such as suggesting replies to emails, and creates a summary of what it learned in the process to send back.

24 comments

  1. I tried this out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It just keep suggesting I open up a new porn page. Obviously this thing works.

  2. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It still sends your personal data summed up in a nice little file. It just uses your CPU cycles to process and summarize it before it sends it on to Google.

    1. Re:Translation by DickBreath · · Score: 2

      The summed up part is one or more matrix of interconnection weights. So the original raw data is no longer present in what is sent to the mother ship. That's the point.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more like the data is transformed to a fuzzy representation of sorts, that is the topology and weights of the neural network?

      basically lossy compression.

      and can probably be reconstructed.. missing parts regenerated.. creatively upsampled.. by another neural network ?

    3. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were collecting data for the purpose of creating those matrices in the first place. Doing the processing on a different device doesn't change the outcome. Privacy is the right to be let alone. The privacy violation is not just in the collection of personal data, it is in using it too. Doing the initial step of using it on your own device doesn't change the fact that they're using it.

    4. Re:Translation by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      I think you have to agree to this first. But consider this hypothetical complaint uttered in a single breath:

      I just hate how much Google knows about me! Hey Google, can you recommend a movie I might like?

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    5. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. I want to know exactly how much money Google is going to be paying people for using their devices to make the company more financially successful.

      Or maybe they are banking on people being stupid and going "Duh..I don't mind if a corporation uses me to advance themselves and I get nothing out of it.", just as the unpaid "experts" (read: checklist readers) on Google's product forums and anyone running Microsoft Spyware 10 do.

  3. Re:google lets you learn about butthoals, by DickBreath · · Score: 1

    Do you send the raw sensor data to the mother ship, or are you using federated learning?

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  4. Running code by ghoul · · Score: 1

    So now instead of merely sharing my data, I am going to have to allow Google to run code on my devices. Somehow I feel giving execution privileges is a bigger hole than data privileges. Next they will ask for your bank details so they can keep you safe from being hacked....

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re: Running code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I likk all yerr tow cheez off evry tow

    2. Re:Running code by Aristos+Mazer · · Score: 1

      It's full source code, not compiled executables, so you can check it for behavior you don't like.

    3. Re:Running code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever actually tried to read somebody else's bloated, incomprehensible code mess? It's "obscurified through insanity", whether intentional or not, nearly all the times.

    4. Re: Running code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can attest that this is the case for tensorflow

    5. Re:Running code by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Not everyone is a coder but even non coders know letting a program run on your machine is a lot more dangerous than sharing data.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    6. Re:Running code by Aristos+Mazer · · Score: 1

      The whole point of this is that you aren't sharing data.

  5. Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This means we get to pay for the power to train the AI.

  6. The downside: by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    The upside is it's doing so without sucking up all of your information.

    The downside is that it's going to suck up all your information for other reasons. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:The downside: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The downside is that it's going to suck up all your information for other reasons. ;)

      Just like their reCapcha. To improves user experience.

  7. Preferred version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The one that doesn't send any data to the mother roach.

  8. Compression by goombah99 · · Score: 1

    Exactly, AI's are basically compressors. It's already been demonstrated one can extract things like social security numbers and stuff from trained AIs that don't actually output SS numbers. Like Ragu spaghetti sauce, it's in there, just not recognizably at a glance.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  9. "sends only the lesson back to the app maker" by ffkom · · Score: 1

    Sure, just like the Google Streetview cars were of course only taking photos of the streets. That corporation turned evil a long time ago.

  10. They still don't seem to grasp the concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These people are reprehensible, their users are literally nothing but chattle to them. Not a chance, Goog. Find someone else to crowd source.

  11. Umm... so metadata. by Eubeleus · · Score: 1

    Learning about your behavior/data habits is just another form of personal data.