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

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The US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) plans to gather and analyze images of the faces of migrant kids on the border in a bid to enhance facial recognition know-how, MIT Know-how Overview can reveal.

The know-how has historically not been utilized to kids, largely as a result of coaching information units of actual kids’s faces are few and much between, and encompass 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 the case of minors. 

In follow, the brand new DHS plan might successfully clear up that downside. However, past considerations 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 offer—or withhold—consent. Learn the total 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 almost 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 one 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 partly issued as a result of it’s doable 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 assume 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 total story.

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