Photo by Brendan Smialowski ( Getty Images)Software written by Belgian artist Dries Depoorter has led to politicians being caught using their phones during sessions. The Flemish Scrollers, his artificial intelligence program, reviews YouTube streams from Flemish government meetings. It then identifies who is on their phone and their Twitter handle. The program then tweets clips for us amusement.AdvertisementGizmodo is told by Depoorter that he intends to make the code available for anyone who wants to examine C-Spans bounty. One can only imagine all the possibilities across the aisles on the House and Senate floors. No more silent Candy Crush protests. Matt Gaetz is done sharing nudes. No more Ted Cruz giving Klobuchar the cold shoulder, or noodling about during Senate testimony on the Capitol riot. (At the very least, in a fantasy world in which Ted Crus responds with shame.Image: The Flemish Scrollers ( AnotherGizmodo was told by Depoorter that it is impossible to give politicians an overall ratio of phone use to session time due to shifting camera angles. This creates a rare desire for greater surveillance.While the project is entertaining and useful, Depoorter said to Gizmodo that it aims to highlight the dangers associated with face recognition technology. This project is very similar to Amazons Rekognition program. It has an almost 35% error rate for women with darker skin. It recalls numerous police misidentifications of suspects. This led to warrants being issued for protesters, potentially culling footage from cell phones, street-facing doorsbells, social media posts and panoptic indoor or outdoor surveillance cameras. Because it is easy for cops not to deny that face recognition was used to identify targets, our scant knowledge often comes mainly from personal testimonials and records requests.Programs like this could also be dangerous for domestic abuse survivors, Alcoholics Anonymous participants and sex workers. Clearview AI has been sued jointly by the ACLU and Mujeres, a nonprofit social service organization that supports Latinx women. The organization warns people not to go to their offices and says undocumented immigrants as well as domestic abuse survivors will be less likely to bring suit.AdvertisementThe point has been made by Depoorter in a string of similar projects. These include installing a camera to announce what it sees, picking celebrities from CCTV feeds and allowing people to report jaywalkers directly to the police. Participants can then buy mementos.By shame-tweeting the proof and targeting politicians, you can help prevent devastating consequences and motivate lawmakers to take action. While states and cities have created their own facial recognition restrictions, only seven states currently have any laws. This is why the majority of major face recognition cases are brought against Illinois residents. The ACLU has asked President Biden not to use federal funds for the payment of unfettered, flawed face identification systems.AdvertisementFlemings: You can tell your representatives that they should do their job on the Flemish Scrollers twitter feed.
