This app is helping reunite dogs with their owners using AI
It’s hard to imagine the stress that pet owners go through when their furry friends go missing . A US government survey suggests that 7% of lost dogs are never recovered . That’s why a startup named Shadow is trying to reunite dogs with their owners using AI.
The startup has a free iOS and Android app that works with shelters and rescue organizations to help owners find their lost dogs in the US. It also uses AI to match a missing dog’s picture with images posted by shelters, as well as posts on social networks . The model finds potential matches to the missing dog’s photos, and then volunteers help the owner find the pet.
A recent paper posted by researchers who worked with dog network pet2Net suggests that AI recognition solutions could achieve up to 95% accuracy in identifying individual dogs in social media images.
As noted by TechCrunch , Shadow is the brainchild of Cyrus Massoumi, former founder of medical startup ZocDoc. Massoumi had a controversial exit from the startup , but he’s now ready for a fresh start with his new venture.
TechCrunch noted that Shadow started its work in the New York area in 2018, and has reunited almost 10,000 dogs with their owners to date.
Using AI to find animals is not entirely a new idea. Microsoft is already using its AI tech to keep an eye on endangered animal species . The company also has a project in India to track monkeys . Meanwhile, China uses facial recognition to monitor cows and pigs .
You can learn more about Shadow and download the app here .
Facebook is very sorry that we keep noticing its racist AI
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Facebook’s issuing apologies for its AI‘s bigotry again. This time, users watching a video of a Black man were asked it they were interested in more content on “primates.”
The company, by way of apology, said :
Up front: This is nowhere near the first time Facebook’s had a problem with its AI‘s bigotry.
Whether it’s hiring algorithms that are flat out misogynistic , translation errors that result in wrongful imprisonment , or its blanket discrimination against queer people , Facebook’s AI is broken for everyone except straight white men.
Background: In fact, the only thing surprising about this particular problem is that it happened to Google about six years ago .
And that’s the exact lens we should view these issues through when Facebook promises its algorithms will improve. When? At what point is it unacceptable to have product that, at its core, is discriminatory?
Realistically, Facebook’s apologies and promises are less than worthless: they’re harmful.
You wouldn’t sell a garage door opener that didn’t work for Asians. You wouldn’t install an elevator in your building with a sign that said “only works for white men.” And you wouldn’t purchase a driverless car that struggled to identify Black people as pedestrians.
But Facebook would. It uses myriad AI systems that, time and time again, demonstrably struggle to deal with women, Black faces, queer people, and almost any other marginalized group.
Quick take : Facebook’s valued at over a trillion dollars as of 2021 . If it chose to only launch products that weren’t racist, it wouldn’t be.
Facebook willfully releases products that are inherently discriminatory because it feels that profiting off of racism is more acceptable than not profiting. Building algorithms that aren’t discriminatory is, apparently, beyond the scope of modern technology.
As long as companies and their leadership teams are willing to peddle racism for profit, racism will remain profitable.
[ Related: Facebook apologizes. It does other stuff too, but mostly it just apologizes ]
Watch a Trump clone investigate deepfakes in a new show from the creators of South Park
The creators of South Park have launched a new deepfake satire show called Sassy Justice — and you can watch it for free on YouTube.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone teamed up with British comedian Peter Serafinowicz for the weekly series. It’s hosted by Fred Sassy, a consumer advocate and reporter for a local TV station in Cheyenne, Wyoming who’s “Taking the blindfold OFF of Justice!”
The first 15-minute episode explores the dangers of deepfakes and some slightly dubious methods of detecting them.
“Scammers are finding new ways to take advantage of you — the consumer,” the familiar-looking Sassy warns. “Now, with a technology called deep fake, you can get screwed over and lied to in ways never before possible.”
Sassy investigates the manipulated videos through “zoomsclusive” interviews with deepfakes of Al Gore, Michael Caine, and a juvenile Jared Kushner, who’s leading the US government program to tackle the problem. We also hear the thoughts of Ivanka Trump and a kidney dialysis-peddling Mark Zuckerberg.
Some of the deepfakes are more convincing than others. Trump‘s facial gestures are impressibly mimicked and mapped to the speech of the voice actor. But his daughter looks even more dead behind the eyes than normal.
You can watch the full first episode below: