Comment by cratermoon

5 years ago

Computer Vision can be used for facial recognition in surveillance applications. Sentiment analysis for ad targeting. Fraud detection to harass and profile the poor and groups the state considers enemies. And all of them gather massive datasets that can be stolen or sold and used for less than savory purposes. https://algorithmwatch.org/en/syri-netherlands-algorithm/

7 comments

cratermoon

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catlifeonmars  5 years ago

You basically described all or most technological innovation. It’s not specific to machine learning.

  • cratermoon  5 years ago

    Exactly, all technology has both good an bad uses. Some technologies are more easily pressed into service for one or the other, but there is no black-and-white. The comment I was responding to implied there were no downsides of ML, or none of significance.

    • gotostatement  5 years ago

      for me its not that ML is uniquely inherently bad, its more that I was really excited about its applications but realized that, in practice, it's usually pretty simple algorithms, and the more complicated applications dont have much direct application to socially positive stuff. prove me wrong!

      2 replies →

    • solveit  5 years ago

      The comment you were responding to (mine) was responding to a comment implying there were no significant upsides of ML.