Microsoft wields ML to catch child predators, city drops 7-year facial-recognition experiment after no arrests...

Welcome to the first AI round up of this year. AI continues to spread like wildfire and everyone wants a slice of the pie - even Hollywood. Read on for the latest flop in facial recognition, too. Hollywood is cozying up to AI algos: Warner Bros, the massive American film studio and entertainment conglomerate, is employing …

[Terry 6]

Cats

An interesting phenomenon here.

From the initial previews there have been people damning the production. for what seem vague reasons. Certainly not whether it was fun or enjoyable to watch.

Critics came out against it. ditto.

And some people have been saying how bad it is. But it hasn't been the people who've actually seen it on the whole who've said that, but people who haven't been, because the critics didn't like it.

Even the people who I've met who did go and see it and then complained ( not many) just seemed to be quoting what they'd been told in advance - as if they'd only gone so that they could moan afterwards. (Yes it's a thin plot, so what. It wasn't meant to be about the plot. It was never about the plot!)

[Wellyboot]

Re: Cats

Thin plots have never stopped hollywood before!

[JohnFen]

Re: Cats

> But it hasn't been the people who've actually seen it on the whole who've said that, but people who haven't been, because the critics didn't like it.

I pay zero attention to what critics have to say about movies, but I'll tell you why I'm not going to see cats -- the screenshots, clips, and previews I've seen completely creep me out. Critical opinion doesn't enter into it.

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: Cats

@JohnFen: "the screenshots, clips, and previews I've seen completely creep me out."

I'm the same (thought I'm definitely not the target audience for the show or the film), and I think the problem is that the CGI drops the actors straight into the Uncanny Valley.

[trindflo]

Re: Cats

I was wondering how best to point out the ML is going to do what Hollywood does worst: attempt to only reproduce previous successes. Pointing out they would be following the YouTube algorithms does a much better job. Bravo. Be glad they aren't letting flies train the neural net.

[Lee D]

"San Diego has ended its seven-year experiment with facial recognition"

Yup. Could've told you that. I'm sure someone enriched their pockets by doing it but it's pointless as the false-positives are far too high, and far too important to leave to a computer system alone.

Every trial I've read, the only "arrests" come from random incidental things - i.e. they stopped a guy on a false positive for a mugger, but he just so happened to have some weed on him, so they nicked him. Nothing at all to do with any success of the system.

[Giovani Tapini]

I think you are being a bit harsh

The system did indeed confirm everyone had a face...

And selling AI trying to predict people's choice of films, is almost certainly no better than the current experience. Are they going to make people millions by predicting exchange rates better than banks soon? Indeed alternatively they may create their own feedback loop by making all films the same and the bosses believing they are taking no risks.

Some of the best films have been what would now be considered "risky". I thought the whole point of creative industries was NOT to reproduce the same looking stuff all the time...

[TrumpSlurp the Troll]

Facial Recognition

From the numbers quoted the average participant took 60 photos over 7 years. That is less than ten a year.

This doesn't look to be an intensive deployment of technology.

Edited for being a factor of 10 out!

[Wellyboot]

AI

can choose the scripts when AI are paying to go and watch.

Without someone willing to take a punt there'll never be another unexpected hit appearing from stage left.

[monty75]

A network of 1,300 cameras embedded on smartphones and tablets manipulated by staff recorded over 65,000 faces from 2012 to 2019.

Did they just stop because they were using a 16 bit integer to count the faces and it was about to overrun?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they were anticipating the Y2020 bug.

[BGatez]

not cortana !!!????

Pity those so disabled they must depend on cortana, alexa, siri or any of those pathetic spybots

[Pascal Monett]

"Cinelytic’s software will help predict a particular film’s profits"

Please, please, somebody tweak that so we don't get yet another sequel to a prequel of a sequel of a film that was actually passable, some time last millennium.

[Cynic_999]

Including moral values

Had the facial recognition AI be programmed with American moral values, it would only have flagged criminals who are rich enough to spend loadsamoney on expensive lawyers. Otherwise where's the profit in bringing them to justice?

[JohnFen]

Oh, great

> Warner Bros, the massive American film studio and entertainment conglomerate, is employing algorithmic tools to help it decide if a film will become a blockbuster, or go bust at the cinema.

Oh, great. Now the already generally poor offerings from Hollywood will get even worse.

But the great news about San Diego ending its facial recognition trials cheered me tremendously.