this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Eh, everything can be used shitty, but it's often more work to use a cool thing shitty than it is to just be shitty.
Like you could do this, or you can put a cheap directional mic in the ceiling where it has free access to power.
Being able to beat someone to death with a defibrillator doesn't undermine it's value as a life saving tool.
I mean, in this case all they need to do is attach data storage, and suddenly they have a massive data set of natural human conversation to sell to whoever's training AI.
Sure, but it's still cheaper to stick a microphone in the ceiling.
And if you're looking for training data, there's cheaper ways still.
I'm not saying you can't use this for evil, I'm just saying that it's easier to do those same things other ways.
I get what you're saying, but what I was trying to get at was how a lot of these shiny cool things lately seem to be a way to easily package unwanted things. Google's new AI integration openly reads and analyses everything you store and write in Google services, to assist you. People would be up in arms about slapping microphones around in public, but a public noise cancellation system that requires dozens of microphones constantly listening is just really cool.
There are easier ways, but the fact that it's cool sidesteps almost all the resistance. Same way facial recognition cameras covering the UK is talked about as method to only catch criminals, not something that tracks everyone that steps outside their home.
I think your Google example is a good one, but for a different reason.
Google was already analyzing everything you stored and wrote in their services; they didn't need to use AI as a cover for doing that, they just did it. They didn't even need to hide it or pretend they weren't.
Yeah, people probably wouldn't like microphones everywhere. Unless you just call it a security camera, and then we don't notice them.
Why invent a novel dynamic noise cancelation algorithm and robot platform when plastic dome technology is so well understood?
People are cheap and lazy, and even when they're being shitty they're not going to do more than they have to, or overly complicate things.
That's the thing though, they did hide it and pretend they weren't. Techies never trusted them, but the average user viewed google drive as a private cloud storage. Now, Bard is explicitly reading everything, training off of everything you have, and it's being fronted as a step forward.
Most commercial security cameras don't record sound, and most of the visible ones are dummy cameras just to make people wary. And again, there's a difference between a single microphone twenty feet off the ground, and dozens perfectly recording every word every single person speaks in the cafe.
I'm not making the argument that noise cancellation tech is being made so that people can be recorded, I'm making the argument that if noise cancellation tech works, they will 100% use it to capture high quality recordings of every spoken word to sell as a side benefit.