Facebook AI Generated Tags Exposed During Facebook’s Image Outage on July 3, 2019

Facebook experienced a worldwide image outage and/or issues on July 3, 2019.  Consequently, Facebook AI Generated Tags were exposed to the world.

Facebook AI Generated Tagging

Other than the minor annoyance, what may have caught your attention is that all the images have “alt text” that describes what’s in the image.  These are all auto-generated by Facebook’s AI platform.

As you can see, this is not exactly a “gotcha!”.  Facebook has been doing this for years.  They’ve blogged about their research on their “computer vision” extensively.  Regardless, a few people have been understandably spooked by it.

Obviously there are a benefits, like SEO and helping the visually impaired use Facebook.  But it creeped out a ton of people nonetheless.

Not only does it demonstrate how detailed Facebook AI generated tags can be, but it also showed how broadly applicable they are: including the subject, foreground, background, and even — creepy — facial recognition.

Facebook AI Generated Tagging

If you roam around Facebook for a bit and look at your friends’ profile or some Pages’ photo sections, you’ll be surprised to see pretty detailed descriptions.  You will probably even see a whole bunch of names in the photos that reveal who may appear in them.

I talk briefly about how far AI has come along and how there are even prizes awarded in very competitive events in episode 4 of the hotlou show.  Give it a listen to hear how AI was making huge strides forward as far as 10 years ago.

Facebook AI Generated Tagging

So, want to get a good idea of what your life looks like through the eyes of a Facebook computer? Just hop on over to your Facebook profile (yes, that link will take you to YOUR profile) and take a peek before the outage is restored.