Super Recognizer
While “Artificial Intelligence” is supposed to overcome every problem in society, it still has a little way to go. Even though China is using the Google facial recognition software to control its citizens as part of its social credit (social control system), England has found that for some jobs you just cannot beat an old fashioned human being. Scottland Yard has been testing both the computer driven systems and humans and have discovered that some people are extraordinary at recognizing and remembering human faces. Police forces across the country have been using officers who have an exceptional memory for faces and an above-average ability to identify people. Only one percent of the population has the “super-power,” said Tina Wallace, a surveillance expert with Thames Valley Police. Her team began recruiting the special officers in 2017 and now have about 20 on their books, including Alex Thorburn, an officer for 17 years. “I’ve always been good with faces. So when they put a notice out about the tests, I took it!” Thorburn told AFP. “I was shown pictures, dated between 10 and 30 years old, of 10 people. I had to find them in the crowd in the shopping center. “I found them all, but they looked a lot different to how they did in the photos. That was really interesting.”
The team works on screens, using security camera footage, but is also sent out into the field. One of the first major successes was in 2011, during the widespread rioting sparked by the death of a black man shot dead by police in London. Police had to scour some 200,000 hours of security camera footage. “Twenty officers identified 600 of the London rioters,” said Josh Davis, a professor in applied psychology at the University of Greenwich. One police officer who was an expert on gangs recognized an astonishing 180 offenders by analyzing the surveillance video. Some he had never seen in person.
It is deploying its “super-recognizers” at set times outside bars and nightclubs to spot known perpetrators of sexual assault. “We use officers in plainclothes and they’re looking for specific behaviors,” explained Wallace, a police officer for 26 years, at the force’s training center near Reading. “Two in every five men we stopped have got previous convictions for rape or serious sexual assault. We’ve stopped 520 in three years.” “It isn’t really a competition with facial recognition,” he said. “They can be used together. “AI is good with high-quality, front-on images (as with passports at airport e-gates). “Humans are better with lower quality images, where the face is at an angle or partly covered with sunglasses or a mask.” These folks are not brainiacs as one 30-year-old said, “I’m quite forgetful with basic things. I’ll walk into a room and forget what I was coming in for, or I’ll drive to the shops and get a load of stuff except for what I was supposed to get…. Like everyone else, I’m not so good with a shopping list.”
Smiling Familiar faces
After the birth of her baby boy, my friend Ellen got the name of a pediatrician from her mother. “This is the doctor who took care of you when you were a baby,” her mother said. “And I think he still in practice.” My friend contacted the doctor and during the examination of the baby, Ellen remarked, “You were my pediatrician when I was a newborn.” The doctor looked at her and said, “I thought you looked familiar.”
Two blondes are walking down the street. One notices a compact on the sidewalk and bends down to pick it up. She opens it and looks in the mirror and says “Gee, this person looks very familiar.” She hands it to the second blond, who looks at the mirror says, “You dummy, it is me.”
A prostitute walks into a church…
She asks one of the nuns where the priest is, and is shown to a dark room. She sits in the darkness until she hears the familiar voice of the priest ask,
“What troubles you, my child?”
The prostitute replies, “Sorry, Daddy, but I’ve been a naughty girl.”
The priest sighs and says, “For the 100th time Shannon, it’s ‘Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.'”
One afternoon the boss’ wife met him at the office. As they were going down the elevator it stopped and a luscious blonde secretary got on, poked the boss in the ribs, and said, “Hello, cutie pie.” The wife without blinking, leaned over and said, “Hello, I’m Mrs. Pie.”
September 15th Birthdays
1989 – Chelsea Kane, 1890 – Agatha Christie, 1986 – Heidi Montag, 1988 – Chelsea Staub
1952 – Pete Carroll, 1961 – Dan Marino 1978 – Tom Hardy, 1947 – Tommy Lee Jones