Google’s facial recognition system is so accurate it can now recognise your PETS
Tech giant rolls out tech which can identify pics of animals and group them together. Now imagine what that means for the future of human society
GOOGLE's facial recognition system is now so advanced that it can recognise pets and other animals.
The tech firm has just announced an upgrade to Google Photos which offers users the "oppawtunity" to easily group pictures of their animals together.
The app will automatically collect together snaps of your pets so they can be easily viewed.
"When you want to look back on old photos of Oliver as a puppy or Mr Whiskers as a kitten, you no longer need to type 'dog' or 'cat' into search in Google Photos," wrote Google Photos developer Lily Kharevych.
"Rolling out in most countries today, you’ll be able to see photos of the cats and dogs now grouped alongside people, and you can label them by name, search to quickly find photos of them, or even better, photos of you and them."
This all sounds rather nice until you consider the implications for humanity.
The fact that computers, CCTV and smartphones will soon be able to recognise people's faces could pose a major threat to human privacy.
It is feared that ubiquitous facial recognition could allow the creation of a Big Brother system which can track everyone's movements and snoop on them in unprecedented detail.
Bosses, for instance, could use cameras to work out when staff are looking grumpy - and then sack everyone but the blandest workers who never show any negative emotion.
Cops could use the tech to work out who's attending a protest and then arrest them all later, whilst corporations could follow and spy on people as they go about their day-to-day business.
Facebook is already developing tech that can identify people based on their clothing and posture, while the Apple iPhone X features facial recognition which can unlock the device by scanning your face.
Will facial recognition be a dream - or a nightmare?
