For Elon Musk, Google's 'Clips' camera doesn't 'seem' innocent

Google's artificial intelligence (AI)-based "Clips" camera has not impressed Tesla founder Elon Musk, a famed critic of AI.

"Clips" does image recognition and AI processing on-device, deploying machine learning to automatically click best pictures for you.
Musk, who thinks AI could trigger World War III and poses a far greater threat than North Korea, has now tweeted against "Clips" and its prowess.

Musk took to Twitter with reference to a video of "Clips" posted by The Verge.

"This doesn't even 'seem' innocent," he tweeted.

Google declined to comment specifically on Musk's tweet, CNET reported on Monday.

The $249 "Clips" is a lightweight, hands-free camera that helps people capture spontaneous moments.

"We've put machine learning capabilities directly into 'Clips' so when you turn it on, the camera looks for good moments to capture. Clips looks for stable, clear shots of people you know," Google said.

The camera shoots short-motion photos that last several seconds. The clips sync wirelessly and in seconds from the camera to the Google Clips app for Android or iOS.

"Finally, all the machine learning happens on the device itself. And just like any point-and-shoot, nothing leaves your device until you decide to save it and share it," Google added.
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Google to release Clips camera, GoPro stock dips by 6 percent

Google's announcement that it was planning to launch a smart video camera as part of its push into hardware sent shares of action camera maker GoPro Inc down more than six percent on Wednesday.

Google Clips will be the first standalone camera from the search and advertising company, which has expanded its hardware business over the last year.
Its signature feature draws on machine learning technology to automatically begin recording when notable actions are detected. Those could include a child cracking a smile or a dog entering the frame.

It was one of a suite of new products unveiled by Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday. Its move into smartphones, speakers and laptops has put the search giant into competition with Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc .

Clips, which Google said is "coming soon," takes on compact cameras such as GoPro's Hero5 Session and Snap Inc's Spectacles as each strives to make the process of recording video simpler and more mobile.

GoPro stock closed down 6.3 percent at $10.39. Shares of Snap, which derives revenue mostly from ad sales on its social media app, dropped 0.75 percent to $14.53.
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Google may get access to genomic patient data - why we should worry

Artificial intelligence is already being put to use in the NHS, with Google’s AI firm DeepMind providing technology to help monitor patients. Now I have discovered that Google has met with Genomic England – a company set up by the Department of Health to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project – to discuss whether DeepMind could get involved.

If this were to happen, it could help bring down costs and speed up genetic sequencing – potentially helping the science to flourish. But what are the risks of letting a private company have access to sensitive genetic data?

Genomic sequencing has huge potential – it could hold the key to improving our understanding of a range of diseases, including cancer, and eventually help find treatments for them. The 100,000 Genomes Project was set up by the government to sequence genomes of 100,000 people. And it won’t stop there. A new report from the UK’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies, is calling for an expansion of the project.

However, a statement by the Department of Health in response to a freedom of information (FoI) request I made in February reveals this decision has already been made. The department said in this response that the project will be integrated into a single national genomic database. The purpose of this will be to support “care and research, and the acceleration of industrial usage”. Though it will “inevitably exceed the original 100,000 genomes, we do not anticipate that there will be a set target for how many genomes it should contain”, the statement reads.

The costs of sequencing the genome on a national scale are prohibitive. The first human genome was sequenced at a cost of US$3 billion. However, almost two decades later, Illumina, which is responsible for the sequencing side of the 100,000 Genomes Project, produced the first “$1,000 genome” – a staggering reduction in cost. Applying machine learning to genomics – that is, general artificial intelligence – has the potential to significantly reduce the costs further. By building a neural network, these algorithms can interpret huge amounts of genetic, health, and environmental data to predict a persons health status, such as their level of risk of heart attack.
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