Clearview AI has just scored very well in testing on two major topology models: the obvious approach uses whether there are patterns of interactions or not (great), and the more controversial open data approach uses both of these factors (unlikely) as well as others (possibly), etc, in a bid to be more accurate than one would in a standard single sentence from a text.
The preference for open data in this case is not uncommon as it is one way of ensuring that the results are statistically robust. It is inescapable that, whilst there is a strong association between open data and improved accuracy, a significant correlation does not prove there is some fixed size and shape of the probabilistic relationship between open data and improved accuracy (which it’s hard to imagine), and more scrutiny is needed.
As with most analytical models, there is nothing inherently wrong with any particular aspect of the model. However, it’s well known that the abundance of variations and diversions can eventually overwhelm even the most attention-deficit skilled observer (let alone their AI), so it’s vital to recognise not just features of the model itself but also the manner in which the model is created.
Richard Swift
Exeter, Tyneside
• We can claim to have built an artificial human, but at what cost? That other designers want to play with our stuff makes us feel dangerous, as do the people reading. One of my mentors told me that human perceptual development ended with the invention of the tool, but that by 2075 we will have better ideas for what makes a tool and not what needs to be used for what.
The anthropological demand for designers to tell stories rather than create mechanics is being broken by a breed of seemingly uncritical amateurs, and has the potential to undermine the very future our profession is supposed to preserve.
It has come to a point where a few robot makers can almost buy in a good team of designers to help tell them their technology is advancing more and more rapidly. This, combined with the inability of the consumer world to distinguish between machines of beauty and our conventional ones, means that we have painted ourselves into a corner.
Simon Waller
Weymouth, Dorset
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