Clearview AI Faces Trouble in Canada, Pornhub Biometric Verification Initiative, and Other AI News

We aim to inform readers not only about events in the bitcoin industry, but also about developments in adjacent technology fields — cybersecurity, and now in the world of artificial intelligence (AI).

ForkLog has assembled the most important AI news of the past week.

Canadian authorities urge Clearview AI to stop collecting citizens’ photos

Canadian privacy regulators stated that Clearview AI violated local laws by collecting citizens’ photos from the internet without their consent. They noted that people whose images are stored in the database could be misidentified or face leaks.

“Clearview conducts mass surveillance, and that is illegal. It is altogether unacceptable that millions of people who have never been involved in any crime are constantly in the sight of the police,” said Daniel Therrien, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner.

Regulators ‘recommended’ Clearview AI to cease providing its services to Canadian clients. They also want the company to stop collecting any images of people in Canada and delete all those it already has.

However regulators lack the power to fine Clearview or force it to leave the country.

Amazon to deploy AI cameras for monitoring delivery vans and drivers

The company plans to use AI-powered cameras to monitor delivery drivers on their routes to reduce crashes and curb risky driving.

Four cameras will continuously record footage around the cab and the driver. The intelligent system will detect and warn drivers of traffic violations. Amazon will use the collected data to assess carriers.

The company noted that the system is not intended for real-time monitoring of drivers, but it will upload footage to a dedicated security group for 16 different actions. Some actions will be flagged by the AI without warnings and uploaded to the cloud.

Drivers are skeptical about such innovations. They say cameras will make an already demanding job even tenser.

Pornhub Biometric Verification Initiative

Pornhub plans to implement biometric technology to verify users uploading videos to the platform. For account verification the service uses Yoti’s solution and will require uploading a current photo of the user and an identity document.

Yoti’s algorithms will verify the authenticity of the document and match it to the user’s photo. Other elements of the expanded policy include details about how moderators will work going forward — they will “regularly monitor searches on the platform for increases in phrases that attempt to bypass existing safety measures”.

Major changes to Pornhub’s privacy policy followed The New York Times piece Pornhub Children, in which a journalist described how the site’s popular platform profits from inappropriate content involving minors.

Against the backdrop of the controversy around the service Visa and Mastercard, the platform removed 10 million videos from unverified users.

FaceID to recognise users while wearing a mask and via Apple Watch

Apple began testing a new version of iOS 14.5 that will allow iPhone owners to unlock their devices with FaceID without removing a medical mask.

To unlock the smartphone in this way, the user will first need to unlock the watch, and then bring the phone up to their face. The Apple Watch must have the wrist-detection feature activated.

It is expected that the final version of iOS 14.5 will be available to the general public in spring 2021.

Sony patents AI algorithm that adjusts gameplay difficulty in real time

Sony patented a machine-learning algorithm that automatically adjusts the difficulty levels of a video game when players struggle.

The patent proposes using AI to change a boss’s moves based on successful and failed attempts previously used by the player. The ML model would then determine new opponent behavior, making it more or less difficult to beat.

These changes could cause the AI to stop the boss from using weapons that repeatedly kill the player’s character, or, conversely, grant it a new shield if the gamer is handling the opponent too easily.

These changes could be based on data from a single player or on patterns recognizable by several players.

Google teaches smartphones to measure heart rate and breathing rate using the camera

Google introduced technology to measure heart rate and breathing rate using the phone’s camera.

To measure breathing rate, users should position their head and upper torso in view of the phone’s front-facing camera and breathe normally. To measure heart rate, users must touch the back-panel camera lens with a finger.

Engineers used computer-vision technologies to create these new features. They allow the phone camera to track tiny physical signals at pixel level, such as chest movements for breathing rate and subtle color changes in the finger for heart-rate measurement.

The developers note that these measurements are not intended for medical diagnosis or assessment of diseases. They could still be useful to people using the Google Fit app to track and improve everyday well-being.

Over the coming month these features will be available in Google Fit for Pixel phones. The developers also plan to roll them out to a broader set of Android devices.

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