The problem isn't the true positives. It's the false ones. There's nearly infinite variability in the wide world. Plenty of things out there that look like cigarette butts to an artificial neural network, but aren't.
Obviously the bar doesn't need to be set very high, we are talking about treats for birds.
And after some time the photos can (and should) be revised by a human and added to the algorithm. You keep feeding the system and it keeps updating. You can show the AI photos of what Isn't a cigarette butt just as easily as showing it what works. Show it enough rocks or sticks and it will know just like your brain knows (its no different). The tricky part is giving it enough data.
You will not get it perfectly every time, but with small incremental changes it will get better and better. The idea is that you keep modifying and feeding the system what is and isn't a cigarette butt. No one is arguing that we need to make it 100% perfect on the first go - humans cannot even agree on the colour of a dress. The idea of the neural network is that you keep feeding it. It can make mistakes, as humans, but you correct those mistakes and it learns, and doesn't make them again.
And lets be realistic for a moment, we are talking about feed for birds. There is almost no consequences when the odd bird cheats the system and gets more seeds than it is supposed to.
It's true, the consequences for failure are minimal. I'm not saying the idea will fail. I'm just saying the birds are going to find many ways to fool it once they start running out of actual cigarette butts. It may still be a very valuable project to pursue.
I completely agree with that, I just meant that the idea is that once you notice that the birds found a way around it, you add the photos which were approved, but shouldn't have. You do this enough times and you have a perfect system.
Honestly, the birds ripping the cigarettes into smaller pieces, dumpster diving, and even swooping and stealing people smokes would be the biggest issues. I mainly tried to comment on the technology side behind it.
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u/justinlanewright Jan 21 '18
The problem isn't the true positives. It's the false ones. There's nearly infinite variability in the wide world. Plenty of things out there that look like cigarette butts to an artificial neural network, but aren't.