I worry that smartphone photos will become inadmissible in court as evidence ... and will also give all shady characters like politicians a cover to change narratives
I am more shocked that you are not concerned that image manipulation technology could (and likely already has) been used to send an innocent person who can not afford the use of an expert to challenge the image to jail
Evidence presented in court should reflect exactly what happen, a true and accurate representation. Not what some ML algorithm believes happened. This is especially true in a criminal cast where a persons freedom is at stake, and often the captured criminality is not the focus of the image but rather something in the background making the ML processing even less reliable, and would allow for more interpretation by the viewer.
I am a firm believer that is better for 100 guilty to go free than it is for 1 innocents to falsely convicted, sad that many do not share that world view any more
What we are saying is not the opposite. We are both worried about justice being denied -- because what used to be a reliable means of capturing evidence (photographs) is drifting towards becoming unreliable due to the push towards commercial / fancy applications to the detriment of authenticity.
The sheer scale and reach of smartphone cameras is helping the common man across the world capture day to day injustice and garner support to push back about abuse of power and authority, discrimination, harrassment etc.
I wish smartphone cameras stay reliable and continue to provide the best possible reflection fo reality -- and push boundaries on technological improvements that can be made to IMPROVE their accuracy and defensibility even in court settings or on crowdsourced social-media settings -- so that they can become a reliable aid in enabling justice and stand the test of time.
I hope for the advancement of deepfake technology for exactly the opposite reason. All that surveillance footage and vox populi photos? Now they're all suspect as tampered, even when they're genuine.
