All posts by Intellicurious

News, Views and Reviews for the Intellectually Curious

Technology Podcast: Concerns Over Facial Recognition Technology

Scientists have grave concerns over ethical and societal impacts of facial-recognition technology. In this surveillance special, we dig into the details.

In this episode:

03:24 Standing up against ‘smart cities’

Cities across the globe are installing thousands of surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition technology. Although marketed as a way to reduce crime, researchers worry that these systems are ripe for exploitation and are calling for strict regulations on their deployment.

Feature: Resisting the rise of facial recognition

17:44 The ethics of researching facial recognition technology

Despite concerns surrounding consent and use, researchers are still working on facial recognition technology. Can this sort of work be justified? We hear some of the debates going on in academia about this field of research.

Feature: The ethical questions that haunt facial-recognition research

25:02 What do researchers actually think?

Nature surveyed 480 researchers who have published papers on facial recognition, AI and computer science. The results revealed that many researchers think there’s a problem.

Health: Covid-19 Vaccine Threatened By Mistrust Of Science & Politicians

A vaccine for covid-19 could be rolled out before the end of the year. But a worrying rise in mistrust of vaccines threatens its effectiveness. Now & Next is a series from The Economist Films: https://films.economist.com/nowandnext/

Morning News Podcast: Cybersecurity Official Fired, Covid-19 Lockdown

The President fires top cybersecurity official who defended integrity of election, new coronavirus restrictions in place as record 73,000 hospitalized, and runaway dog from Canada crosses border into United States.

Travel: City Of Sneek, Friesland, Netherlands

First recordings of this old town are from the 10th century. There are several old buildings and of course new quarters. Sneek has about 33.500 inhabitants.

Sneek is a city southwest of Leeuwarden and seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland. As for 2011 it is part of the municipality Súdwest-Fryslân. The city had approximately 33,855 inhabitants in January 2017.

Legendary Food: ‘Ben’s Chili Bowl – The Chili Half-Smoke’, Washington DC

Washington, DC, has a little bit of everything for history buffs and foodies, but it’s Ben’s Chili Bowl, which sits on the historic U Street once known as Black Broadway, where the two come together. Insider’s Lisa Paradise stopped by for a bite of the chili half-smoke: a half-pork, half-beef sausage smothered in homemade chili crafted from a generations-old secret family recipe that has remained popular for so many generations it was named the city’s signature dish.