
Invented at Duke, Financed in Beijing: Powerful Camera Shows China’s AI Ambition - mudil
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-powerful-spy-camera-invented-at-duke-ended-up-in-chinas-hands-1528714895
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__blockcipher__
> Mr. Brady, who remains Aqueti’s biggest shareholder, said he has no qualms
> about aiding China’s surveillance system, which critics claim leads to
> humans-rights abuses.

> _“A government doesn’t need the hand of technology to be oppressive,”_ he
> said.

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codeulike
Such a stupid argument. So you have two factors: X and Y that contribute to
bad thing Z. Decreasing X (surveillance technology in this case) will decrease
Z, even if Y (oppressive-minded government) remains the same. But his
statement is aimed to occlude that obvious fact through sophistry.

I don't really need to point out the other obvious place where the same
argument often gets used.

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flak48
This exact argument is used by the Indian Government too when questioned about
the very-real surveillance possibilities enabled by Aadhaar.

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fvdessen
Ironically the thick air pollution seems to drastically impair the performance
of their surveillance solution.

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dick_sucker2
How is that ironic?

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sangnoir
In the Alanis Morissette way, I guess.

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steve19
> “A government doesn’t need the hand of technology to be oppressive,” he
> said.

I interpret that as meaning "They will do bad things with or without me". An
interesting twist on the usual "I am not responsible for what my customers do
with my product".

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horsecaptin
I often wish security cameras in the US were more powerful. They're terrible
at identifying useful information from a crime in progress: license plates,
face and clothing... the important bits are always blurry.

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AlexCoventry
Curious about the circumstances which cause you to often wish that.

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horsecaptin
Usually at parking spots outside businesses. Or parking areas in general -
another friend's catalytic converter got stolen because he drives an SUV and
the ground clearance allows for very easy cutting.

In both cases, the camera footage was utterly useless.

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Bucephalus355
The worst mass deaths under Chinese Communism occurred during the huge famine
of 1959-1961. About 50 million people died who shouldn’t have died. Mass
numbers of anything are hard to wrap our minds around, but essentially this
was the Holocaust times 4.

I wish I could say Justice would be dispensed to the Western collaborators of
totalitarian regimes, but both the Koch’s and IBM sold extensively to the
Nazi’s, and only grew richer later.

~~~
v_lisivka
It's Holocaust times 10: 4,5 million of Jews were died (6 millions if children
are counted, children are not counted back then). But you may want to compare
Chinese Famine with Holodomor: 7 millions of Ukrainians are killed using
hunger by Stalin communists in USSR (30 millions if children are counted), so
Chinese Famine is 6x larger.

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anomie31
The Nazis didn't just kill jews in the Holocaust.

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baybal2
Good quality general purpose video cameras + FPGAs to flatten and combine
video.

~~~
ttul
... and a very willing investor.

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peter303
The US is falling behind in allocating sufficient capital to develop
technological advances. Thank God there are backups.

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7373737373
Hedge funds will love this

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hnisgroupthink
More propaganda backed by clickbait. Ban news sites please.

Here's a guideline: If different people write the story than the headlines ban
the site.

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Beefin
Paywall?

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bentpins
[http://facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how...](http://facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-
a-powerful-spy-camera-invented-at-duke-ended-up-in-chinas-hands-1528714895)

~~~
kencausey
Can I suggest the alternative of
[https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-
powerf...](https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-powerful-spy-
camera-invented-at-duke-ended-up-in-chinas-hands-1528714895) ?

