Google Photos - STUNNING

[Beasho]

My crappy iPhone died a few months ago.  I lost all the photos.  Otherwise I was pretty well backed up.

A co-worker recommended Google Photos.  I started backing up my phone in December.  It asks a simple question "Who is this?" . . . Oh, That is Macy!

I have since sync'd my entire hard drive.  28,000+++ photos.  From the 1 question it finds 3,117 photos of Macy down to the age of 2 months.    Then my other daughter 4,202 photos, my son, my wife, the dog . . . .

[Beasho]

You can type in "Dog", "Flower", "Tree" and it will find all that stuff too. 

Someone asked me if machine learning was for real.  I suggested they try Google photos and dropped the mike. 

This is the free stuff, imagine what the industrial grade can do 

Here is what it found when I typed in "Beach"

[SuppaTime]

That is totally cool. I love geeky stuff like that. Nice photos, BTW.

[stoneaxe]

YOU WILL ASSIMILATE!

I love Google and all it's tools but it does get a little creepy. Not sure where it all goes....store robot clerks recognizing me and recommending the perfect boardshorts to go with the rash guard I bought a few weeks back at a different store is going to be a little weird.

[Kaihoe]

The machine learning bit is very real and a bit creepy.  Google don't even know how it does what it does.

Its even scarier if you read this http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

[PonoBill]

Great article. A compilation of a lot of the things I've read, with some excellent clarification. Yes, Google Photos makes everything else look kind of clumsy. Some day they'll get someone with some design sensibility to work on their UI, or maybe their AI will get embarrassed at being so fugly and do a rework.

[Weasels wake]

Heh~

[Califoilia]

Well that was fun, and interesting....and I'm pleased to see that typing my name in Google, doesn't bring my picture up in the however many photos popped up on the first page of searches.  The closest it came was an image I use as a screen icon on a couple baseball forums I also post on....


But also a bit disconcerting, was that this "image".....

.....came up a bunch of levels above it.  WTF?? I don't look anything like that tool, nor have a name anything close to his.

[p06781]

Love Google photos too! 

[SeldomScene]

And to think it all started with cookies.  The governments knowledge of you and your actives pale in comparison to Google.  Big brother on steroids.

[tautologies]

Someone asked me if machine learning was for real.  I suggested they try Google photos and dropped the mike. 

 It's a bird. It's a plane.

[eastbound]

in many ways i am more comfortable with government knowing of my data---in theory we elect our government and can control it--clearly that's arguable---unarguable is a that we have little knowledge and control of what powerful corporate entities are doing with our data, as they pursue profit.

[Admin]

The machine learning bit is very real and a bit creepy.  Google don't even know how it does what it does.

Its even scarier if you read this http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

"It hit me pretty quickly that what’s happening in the world of AI is not just an important topic, but by far THE most important topic for our future."

Yup, and the terms AI and Machine Learning don't cover it.  Machine Autonomy is more to the point.  For the moment it is still fragmented into sub technologies and there is still a human component involved.  We are required for the production and advancement of the technologies and equipment that are moving this toward its end (or beginning).  We are still pushing.  But that period is almost up.  In the upcoming years we will see machine intelligence independently designing and controlling machine production of the (its own) machine hardware.  Machine Evolution will at that point be out of our hands. 

It is interesting to consider what our role will be in that inevitable future.  We are developing these technologies as our tools, including intelligence, learning and autonomy functions, but what happens when full independence is achieved? What value are we and is there any need to incorporate us in the architecture of the  super-intelligent?  Even the smartest of us.  How much do we value the input of the smartest cow in the herd?

PS:  The author's section on "why it's so hard" is all notably outdated.  Resolving capctha, object recognition such as rocks from 2D images, have been capabilities for some time.  In terms recognizing a rock for instance, sensor/system redundancy can also accomplish this visually, at night, by "touch", etc, etc.  This already exceeds human capabilities in many ways and soon will in all ways.  Google's ability to define the trees in Beasho's images or connect images of the same face over time is a clear example. 

[spirit4earth]

Does Google photos work with just an iPad, or do you need a laptop?

[PonoBill]

On the one hand AI and robotic intelligence is frightening, but it's also the best likely solution to most of the issues that plague humanity. Does the solution get implemented to help or harm. Impossible to say. A substantial percentage of people believe that technology does more harm than good, despite the reality that we live better today than at any other time in history. I think the concerns are valid because in reality we're just riding along on this wave. There's a bit of control available, but not much. the truth is that as a species we aren't really bright enough or altruistic enough to manage this transition.

Hope for the best.