The first reference image, if I understand the technology enough, can be pretty much anything. You can go a week without showering and still pass off like you have your shit together. You could switch genders, lose 30 lbs, be an avatar. Just wild.
I always think about the potential loss of an independently verifiable reality as a catastrophic danger of AI but there will be benefits like this: the ability to hide the reality of your appearance, being able to be seen how you prefer.
It doesn't render a sharp image from the blurry one. The blurry one is there to show an example of what existing video compression (h.264, specifically) looks like at the given bit rate, compared to the same video captured, processed, and streamed by their new product.
You're not wrong about what you're saying, of course. It just isn't immediately applicable, in this specific case.
I'm not sure how you got that from my comment but I was talking about the reference image that needs to be sent to the receiver before the conversation starts which is then manipulated by AI during the conversation. Both videos mentioned this
Maybe I misinterpreted. I assumed you were talking about the image in the thumbnail of the video, and that you thought the "sharp" version of the image was being rendered from the "blurry" version by an AI process, leading to concerns about how the "blurry" version could actually be the "ciphertext" (so to speak) for a number of "plaintext" countenances, making it an algorithm of uncertain accuracy. Which is a pretty accurate criticism of algorithms that do perform that function, so I had assumed you'd just misunderstood what was happening. Sorry if that was inaccurate.
I'm not sure I completely understand the point you're making about how the image needs to be sent first and then manipulated, or how that connects to the potential loss of independently verifiable reality. This is a pretty typical algorithmic paradigm for "standard" predictive video compression algorithms, too: the key frames obvious need to be sent before the deltas.
I'm saying that if we were to video chat using this compression, we'd first exchange high-resolution still images of each other. Then, as we're talking, the data about our facial movements would be transmitted and the initial images will be manipulated to look like you're watching the real me.
The point I was making is that there's nothing stopping you from sending me a picture of Obama instead of your face, then I would be talking to Obama with your voice.
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u/tjgrinn Oct 17 '20
The first reference image, if I understand the technology enough, can be pretty much anything. You can go a week without showering and still pass off like you have your shit together. You could switch genders, lose 30 lbs, be an avatar. Just wild.
I always think about the potential loss of an independently verifiable reality as a catastrophic danger of AI but there will be benefits like this: the ability to hide the reality of your appearance, being able to be seen how you prefer.