Beware of what you post on social networks! This AI is capable of locating your address from a simple shot. A feat as impressive as they are worrying …
In the era of social networks, the photos we share – voluntarily or not – turn into data fragments. Put end to end, they allow you to know a lot about us. And this puzzle, some artificial intelligences are today capable of reconstructing it with disconcerting precision.
In recent years, AI prowess has been praised in various fields, from medicine to automatic translation. But, despite these incredible innovations, artificial intelligence continues to raise increasing concerns. Because malicious people do not lack imagination to divert such technology!
A new AI, Geospy, particularly worried, since it allows Internet users to find the location of taking a photograph in a few clicks. Admittedly, the phenomenon is not completely new. Internet users keen on geography and cartographic riddles have already been on specialized forums for many years. But this deduction game took time and, above all, was not accessible to the first comer. But it becomes a completely different matter when you entrust the task to an AI nourished by 46 million images from around the world.
Developed by Graylark Technologies, Geospy analyzes the visual elements of a photo to deduce their location. This AI is based on networks of neurons trained to recognize vegetation, materials, street plates, architectural styles, surrounding topography, a license plate … By combining visual information to its immense database, AI is capable of triangulating a specific point, even in the absence of GPS coordinates or obvious elements.
Its effectiveness has raised many questions. If, on paper, these kinds of tools can be very useful for the police or to detect false rental ads, they could easily fall into bad hands, by its ease of use (just download a photo and wait a few seconds). Several observers quickly sounded the alarm, evoking serious risks for the privacy and safety of individuals.
Faced with controversy, the platform has restricted its access. But the demonstration is made: it is no longer necessary to post your address or share its location. A simple image, even banal in appearance, can today be enough to reveal much more than we think …