Technology pioneer Elon Musk has made his sentiments about Artificial Intelligence (AI) very clear. He thinks AI is the biggest risk everyone must face and wants it proactively regulated. That is why when Google unveiled its brand new AI-powered camera, Clips, the inventor was not all too excited about it and even said that the camera does not appear to be innocent.
Musk shared his thoughts about the Google Clips camera on Twitter. Reacting to a post by The Verge, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO commented, "This doesn't even *seem* innocent."
Google's new product uses AI to recognize and learn faces of special interest to its owner. This way, the camera can snap photos of those people without anyone worrying about holding the camera.
The camera has a light that indicates when it is taking photos, but it does it automatically, even without people included in the pictures knowing it.
Many Twitter users pointed out that the Tesla Model 3, one of Musk's products, includes a camera that is pointed at the driver all the time. Still, others defended that the driver-facing camera on the Tesla car does not save footage and only generates log data.
Although Google did not comment directly on Musk's comments, a representative of the company told CNet that the data captured in the camera is not shared until the user takes it out and does it on their own accord.
"All of the machine learning happens on the camera and Clips does not connect to the internet to transfer content. And, just like any point-and-shoot, nothing leaves the camera until you decide to save it and share it," said the representative.
The company is eyeing families as the market for the Google Clips. By pointing the camera at a location where people usually interact, candid moments that are normally not captured with smartphones can be recorded. Parents can also use Clips to capture important moments of their babies without having to stay behind the camera.
