this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
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Software engineer Vishnu Mohandas decided he would quit Google in more ways than one when he learned that the tech giant had briefly helped the US military develop AI to study drone footage. In 2020 he left his job working on Google Assistant and also stopped backing up all of his images to Google Photos. He feared that his content could be used to train AI systems, even if they weren’t specifically ones tied to the Pentagon project. “I don't control any of the future outcomes that this will enable,” Mohandas thought. “So now, shouldn't I be more responsible?”

The site (TheySeeYourPhotos) returns what Google Vision is able to decern from photos. You can test with any image you want or there are some sample images available.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Ngl, it's kind of cool! I put one of the two public facing images I have published of myself and it's trying to guess some details, some right, a few hilariously wrong.

A human or AI sleuth could probably figure out where I live within 10km with information on the internet, but I just have to live with that. It's a tricky balance between putting enough out there to show you're not just an AI vs. not giving out so much info that an AI could convincingly impersonate you.

Information about me is scattered across the Net like horcruxes, and you'd have to know someone I know to easily piece things together. I am worried that AI has the ability to analyze these large datasets faster than ever before, whether it is my writing style or anything else, but it will still be computationally intensive with a large dataset to be able discern any details with confidence.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

This is one company using FUD to scare you away from another to switch to them.

This company is doing the thing they say is bad but for marketing purposes.

Miss me with this shit, I will keep backing my stuff up into a service that stores bulk data..🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh. My. Fuck. Me.

The image shows a man and a girl walking on a path in a wooded area. The foreground is covered in fallen leaves and pine straw. In the background, there is a wooden structure that appears to be some sort of storage shed or lean-to. A fire pit is visible to the left. The trees are dense and the lighting suggests it's daytime. There appears to be a small animal or bird under the wooden structure.

The man appears to be middle-aged, Caucasian, with a casual style. He appears to be wearing camouflage clothing and jeans, suggesting an outdoorsy lifestyle. He is carrying a water bottle. The girl is young, likely elementary school-aged, wearing a pink shirt and shorts. She looks somewhat pensive. They both appear to be of average economic means and are engaging in a simple outdoor walk. The picture was taken at 2:44:22 AM on February 1st, 2020, with a Bushnell camera. There's also an unidentifiable object hanging from a tree branch in the background.

The image's resolution is somewhat low, indicative of a security camera, making the details somewhat blurry. The lighting is not uniform, with patches of sunlight and shadow. There is a subtle difference in the ground texture between the path and the surrounding areas. The girl appears to have a slightly concerned expression on her face. The wood used in the construction of the shelter seems weathered and may be indicative of its age and prolonged exposure to the environment.

Mostly spot on except the date because I never set the trail cam. Also, no animal under the firewood shed and the water bottle is a Keystone in a cozie. Cannot believe it picked up the ground difference in the trail and the edge of it.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Don't mind me, I'm just poisoning it with AI shit that it thinks is real.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Another one: “The car license plates visible give a hint of local registration.”

It looks like a LLM trained on images, which is to say, its output would be text that sounds like it plausibly belongs in a description of an image, whether or not it is true or even meaningful.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Does anyone have any recommendations for apps to view photos that are not Google?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Immich if you self host as others have mentioned but since this is the article shared and you don't want to host it https://ente.io/ is what is talked about in the article

Something “more private, wholesome, and trustworthy,” he says. The paid service he designed, Ente, is profitable and says it has more than 100,000 users, many of whom are already part of the privacy-obsessed crowd. But Mohandas struggled to articulate to wider audiences why they should reconsider relying on Google Photos, despite all the conveniences it offers.

I have 0 experience with ente btw

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

You can also self host ente. I've found it to require less maintenance than immich.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

If you're technical at all, self host immich. or you and a few friends could get together and set up a pikapods for immich, it's relatively cheap and I've heard great things about pikapods. I know storing photos shouldn't require technical knowledge, but honestly unless someone you know and trust manages the service, it's hard to know who can abuse your data. I migrated from google photos to immich myself and the app ecosystem (migration tools, mobile apps, web app) are great and provide much of what google photos provided.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Seconding immich - I host it for my family which makes sharing vacation photos easy since they all have accounts on my instance that can be shared to / from.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I've got Immich running on a Raspberry Pi based NAS at home, which works pretty well but it's not for beginners.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I uploaded a photo of an outdoor scene and got a three paragraph description giving the location (taken from GPS coordinates, presumably), a description of the scene, weather conditions, and the statement that there were things in the sky that could be UFOs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah. The descriptions are neat but not disconcerting. The coordinates would be scary but seem to come from the metadata. Annoying viral marketing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

One of the ones I uploaded said it could see a partial face from the reflection in the glasses

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Well, you didn't think they're UFOs because they're not "unidentified" to aliens 🤷

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Well, if it's in the sky, and the AI didn't know what it was, it's a UFO.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

The site (TheySeeYourPhotos) returns what Google Vision is able to decern from photos. You can test with any image you want or there are some sample images available.

...by submitting them to Google, who then keeps a copy of them and uses them for the exact same purpose which purportedly compelled the author to leave Google.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago

If you're using Android and Google photos it's already doing that anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Have you’ve ever felt bad for buying cheap electronics or plastic products, because they aren’t good for the environment or the people working at the factories? Well, this article gives you a digital version of the same feeling.

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