How in the fuck could an app that tries to remove makeup in images be used for “nefarious” purposes?
This seems like an excellent tool to use for its intended use case. Do you fucking idiots know nothing about how human trafficking works? It’s not for identifying migrants loaded up in trucks. It’s for when sleezy fuckers fly to Dubai with 14 year olds.
Of course the creator is going to tout the most morally upstanding use of his app. If it genuinely helps human trafficking victims, then that’s another story, but from this quote it just seems like he has some vague hope about it.
Yeah that sounds so much like post-hoc justification that I’m seriously surprised that it’s being swallowed by anyone.
I mean, great if it DOES help with such a terrible problem, it’s just I have seen this thing being talked about before and it’s NEVER been discussed in terms of helping trafficking victims. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Almost every time you see this kind of narrative being discussed it’s either 99% of the time a bunch of sweaty incels online whinging about how women aren’t really pretty and just want to trap guys or some other dom/sub kink fantasy nonsense to validate their depression and self-loathing, OR about 1% of the time it’s an actual empowering discussion talking about unfair hollywood beauty standards.
I mean ageing technology (what the person might look like after 5 years etc) was also created for human trafficking victims, and I haven’t seen it really being talked about in many years now since it came out. Seems weird to base something on whether or not you’ve heard of it.
If the family doesn’t have a recent picture of the person without makeup, then yeah, this would be useful, since people can look pretty different without makeup. I’m the only one who has recent pictures of my wife without makeup for example, her friends and parents only have pictures of her with makeup since she normally does some when meeting them. She’s also half Chinese, so depending on how she decides to do her make up, can look way more asian or barely asian at all. If I didn’t have those pictures and something happened, the make-up pictures wouldn’t be as useful in searching for her.
I think this is more about whether or not the creator was honest when they claim that’s why they created the app and it looks like many people here, myself included, are dubious about that being his intention and not just a justification.
The creator stated their intent, and the author disagreed. Does that opinion make the creator’s statement untrue?
It’s a weird situation & definitely a slippery slope. Was it his intent? I honestly can’t say. I guess it’s certainly a possibility.
I don’t think this kind of app is harmful in itself. This kind of thing can & will obviously be used/weapon used by stupid shit-heads for their own agenda, but those kind of people will utilize literally anything that exists to justify their shit-head views.
The author of the article is right not to believe this claim. The author can say that their software was intended for whatever noble uses they want. We know from experience that software has mainstream off-label use.
Is BitTorrent really a tool for downloading community content like open films and Linux distros? Because that’s what the creators say it’s for. It’s not untrue.
Is Jellyfin or Plex a tool for organizing your ripped collection of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays? That’s what the developers say. It’s not untrue
Is Tor a tool for protecting dissidents? That’s what they say it is. It really is that. But is that all it is?
This tool might be useful for identifying sex trafficking victims, just as a nudifying app might be useful for identifying victims of involuntary pornography.
But on the other side of this is that nudifying apps are more likely to be used to create involuntary pornography, and makeup-removal apps are more likely to be used to harass women.
No reason to ban AI technology or anything, but no reason to pretend that tools like this aren’t used for off-label and sometimes nefarious purposes.
If I’m remembering right, wasn’t this specifically developed to assist in helping to better identify victims of human trafficking?
Yep. Found it.
https://www.romper.com/p/a-man-made-app-that-shows-women-without-makeup-on-there-is-so-much-to-unpack-here-5480392
Boy that would seriously mess with the narrative of this comment section if that were the case
Edit: oh no
It’s been used by people for nefarious purposes, regardless of its original intent. Both perspectives are valid.
edit: sexist horseshit is not a valid perspective.
What sexist horseshit are you talking about?
How in the fuck could an app that tries to remove makeup in images be used for “nefarious” purposes?
This seems like an excellent tool to use for its intended use case. Do you fucking idiots know nothing about how human trafficking works? It’s not for identifying migrants loaded up in trucks. It’s for when sleezy fuckers fly to Dubai with 14 year olds.
Of course the creator is going to tout the most morally upstanding use of his app. If it genuinely helps human trafficking victims, then that’s another story, but from this quote it just seems like he has some vague hope about it.
A tech startup with vague likely unrealistic hopes? What are the chances?
Yeah that sounds so much like post-hoc justification that I’m seriously surprised that it’s being swallowed by anyone.
I mean, great if it DOES help with such a terrible problem, it’s just I have seen this thing being talked about before and it’s NEVER been discussed in terms of helping trafficking victims. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Almost every time you see this kind of narrative being discussed it’s either 99% of the time a bunch of sweaty incels online whinging about how women aren’t really pretty and just want to trap guys or some other dom/sub kink fantasy nonsense to validate their depression and self-loathing, OR about 1% of the time it’s an actual empowering discussion talking about unfair hollywood beauty standards.
I mean ageing technology (what the person might look like after 5 years etc) was also created for human trafficking victims, and I haven’t seen it really being talked about in many years now since it came out. Seems weird to base something on whether or not you’ve heard of it.
If the family doesn’t have a recent picture of the person without makeup, then yeah, this would be useful, since people can look pretty different without makeup. I’m the only one who has recent pictures of my wife without makeup for example, her friends and parents only have pictures of her with makeup since she normally does some when meeting them. She’s also half Chinese, so depending on how she decides to do her make up, can look way more asian or barely asian at all. If I didn’t have those pictures and something happened, the make-up pictures wouldn’t be as useful in searching for her.
I think this is more about whether or not the creator was honest when they claim that’s why they created the app and it looks like many people here, myself included, are dubious about that being his intention and not just a justification.
The author of the article you linked doesn’t seem to believe that.
The creator stated their intent, and the author disagreed. Does that opinion make the creator’s statement untrue?
It’s a weird situation & definitely a slippery slope. Was it his intent? I honestly can’t say. I guess it’s certainly a possibility.
I don’t think this kind of app is harmful in itself. This kind of thing can & will obviously be used/weapon used by stupid shit-heads for their own agenda, but those kind of people will utilize literally anything that exists to justify their shit-head views.
The author of the article is right not to believe this claim. The author can say that their software was intended for whatever noble uses they want. We know from experience that software has mainstream off-label use.
Is BitTorrent really a tool for downloading community content like open films and Linux distros? Because that’s what the creators say it’s for. It’s not untrue.
Is Jellyfin or Plex a tool for organizing your ripped collection of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays? That’s what the developers say. It’s not untrue
Is Tor a tool for protecting dissidents? That’s what they say it is. It really is that. But is that all it is?
This tool might be useful for identifying sex trafficking victims, just as a nudifying app might be useful for identifying victims of involuntary pornography.
But on the other side of this is that nudifying apps are more likely to be used to create involuntary pornography, and makeup-removal apps are more likely to be used to harass women.
No reason to ban AI technology or anything, but no reason to pretend that tools like this aren’t used for off-label and sometimes nefarious purposes.
Notably unbiased person Internet McJournalist