The Obtain: facial recognition for migrant youngsters, and Japan’s megaquake

The US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) plans to gather and analyze photographs of the faces of migrant youngsters on the border in a bid to enhance facial recognition expertise, MIT Expertise Assessment can reveal.

The expertise has historically not been utilized to youngsters, largely as a result of coaching information units of actual youngsters’s faces are few and much between, and include both low-quality photographs drawn from the web or small pattern sizes with little range. Such limitations mirror the numerous sensitivities relating to privateness and consent in relation to minors. 

In follow, the brand new DHS plan may successfully clear up that drawback. However, past issues about privateness, transparency, and accountability, some consultants additionally fear about testing and creating new applied sciences utilizing information from a inhabitants that has little recourse to supply—or withhold—consent. Learn the complete story.

—Eileen Guo

What Japan’s “megaquake” warning actually tells us

On August 8, at 16:42 native time, a magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook southern Japan. The temblor, originating off the shores of mainland island of Kyūshū, was felt by practically one million folks throughout the area, and initially, the specter of a tsunami emerged. However solely a diminutive wave swept ashore, buildings remained upright, and no person died. The disaster was over as rapidly because it started.

However then, one thing new occurred. The Japan Meteorological Company, a authorities group, issued a ‘megaquake advisory’ for the primary time. It was partially issued as a result of it’s potential that the magnitude-7.1 quake is a foreshock – a precursory quake – to a far bigger one, a tsunami-making monster that would kill 1 / 4 of one million folks.

The excellent news, for now, is that scientists suppose it is vitally unlikely that that magnitude-7.1 quake is a prelude to a cataclysm. However the slim chance stays that it was a foreshock to one thing significantly worse. Learn the complete story.