Posted on 09/06/2021 7:34:42 AM PDT by dynachrome
Singapore has started trialing robots to patrol public areas and deter poor social behaviour in its latest effort to further augment its strong portfolio of surveillance tools.
Ranked one of the safest countries in the world, Singapore has put two autonomous robots on trial to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures, smoking in prohibited areas and the improper parking of bicycles, Singapore's Home Team Science and Technology Agency said in a statement on Sunday.
It said the two patrol robots, named Xavier, are equipped with cameras that can detect bad social behaviour and trigger real-time alerts to the command and control centre.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Great gif!
Oh yes. We have a Shaw’s. They don’t have robots either, as far as I know.
I remember Purity Supreme. Also FINAST (First National Stores)
Before the Covid nonsense two kids in their 20s were standing in front of the frozen food my wife likes for an extended period of time comparing every label, etc... To finally get the food I wanted, I said, “Oh, my wife really likes those; you ought to give them a try.” They looked at me like I was a space alien and skulked off in horror.
Maybe Fred Meyers should program their robots to recite little one liners to make them seem more personable. Things like, “What do you call a pile of robot lawyers at the bottom of the sea??? A good start! Ha... ha... ha... Is that a carrot in your pants or do you just need to recharge your laptop battery??? Ha... ha... ha...
Obviously they would need to employ out of work comedians to come up with fresh material.
I was mostly just trying to be funny while pointing out that they probably have ulterior motives that probably are completely benign. Didn't mean to offend you... sorry.
In New York, it would be up on blocks, missing it’s wheels
with it’s guts hanging out, probably set on fire too.
I am sorry you encountered that blank stare from the 20-somethings. It is a sad commentary about the young people of today that they don’t engage in conversation. Perhaps they spend too much time texting, playing video games, or tweeting on their cell phones.
One of the reasons I never joined Twitter was that conversation was limited to 147 characters per Tweet. Now, human interaction has been affected by this. Your kind suggestion about frozen food put the kids in overload!
The youth of today are starting to act like robots.
Bad reporting, but that's par for the course in AI. The cameras don't detect the bad behavior. They beam images to a program that does the job.
Most of what people call AI is really "machine learning" algorithms: "data scientists" pour petabytes of images that are tagged (by some overlord...more in that later) as "bad social behavior" or not, into some canned program that spits out an algorithm that, after cascading data and gaps between success and failure back and forth until "convergence", separates input images into good and bad buckets. The Bad bucketed images trigger the Singapore Stasi into action.
Singapore has a notorious anti-liberty social construct. Many "law and order" folks love it, which is odd since it's antithetical to our Founding, but so be it. (For more on that search for "Singapore caning".) The point is, Singapore in theory doesn't care about false positives as long as they catch the bad guys. False positives in Singapore are the cost of "order."
As such, this machine learning (ML) algorithm is likely overclocked with bias. But that's probably intentional: I bet there is racial bias, apparel bias, and dozens of other bias...they don't care. Further, if anyone is monitoring or back testing this algorithm, they can refine the algorithm for bias if they want...or give that bias a cheery two thumbs up.
Unlike statistical or econometric or biostatistics modeling, ML is not transparent and is fraught with "black box" unintended consequences. Even the most noble of data scientists can build biased models if their data are biased, and the nature of ML optimization and its lack of transparency will codify that bias. A better check on bias, is the character of the model development team. Nobody is perfect, but if you have love for your fellow man regardless if they lean left or right or whatever, or if they listen to Springsteen, more often than not you should be ok.
But nobility is in the eye of the beholder. There was a story yesterday about Facebook apologizing after its AI put ‘primates’ label on video about black men. Is this an accident, or do we see the TRUE bias of woke tech overlords?
Accepted!
Excellent! You articulated my concerns beautifully. I read about the “primate” incident.
Robots in America may just be cleaning up spills right now, but the technology is there to make the robots far more sinister, using various algorithms. A mysterious bulge at a waistline could be a gun, a red hat could mean a White supremecist, etc.
Thank You for explaining my point so eloquently.
It was a long time ago. I’m old. :-)
“smoking in prohibited areas and the improper parking of bicycles”
What a blessing, to have things like that for your problems.
It was funny, but did seem a little sad to me as well. Who knows how much time they spend on Facebook, etc. but they are afraid to talk in person to people they don't know.
Back when we all still had flip phones we took our youngest daughter and her boyfriend who were living together, to a buffet. He was a decent enough guy and I didn't have any problem with him. While we were standing in line... they were both texting back and forth to each other and giggling. It was amazing to me how quickly they could tap out messages to each other when they had to tap a key four times to get to the letter that they wanted, so I was amused at their antics. My wife however became irritated and laid into them... my mother-in-law was a teacher and would never have put up with nonsense like that.
AI and ML are like firearms: in and of themselves they are tools, technology. Objects.
In hands of moral folks, they can be used for good.
It is the beasts among us, be they mobsters or tech employees, and what's in their heart when they brandish these tools, that should be the focus.
The tricky thing with algorithms, is that it is harder vs mobsters to discern the evil that lurks within. Stay tuned.
I spent, altogether, around 15 years in Singapore, running my own ships. It was all work but a lot of fun from the late seventies until the mid-nineties, with naughty haunts like Joe’s Happy House, Ginevy’s, 392, and the Tropicana. They all shut down and the city became more gentrified, yuppy, boring, and expensive.
To my mind, Singapore was the best place in the world to work in the offshore ship business. Everything was available and at good prices, and services were great. It is very prosperous, simply because the people are hard working, well educated, and well led. Geography has lent a hand as well, and Singapore profits by being an island of law and stability in an ocean of corrupt and boisterous neighbours.
I sold my last ship in 2006 to stay at home in Jakarta. I have only gone back once, in 2017, found it now very expensive, and the city I once knew intimately was still recognisable, but just barely. I love Singapore, but prefer Jakarta!
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