Man tried to sell 150,000 poop photos he collected via AI app
by Séamus Bellamy · Boing BoingWhen Boing Boing alum Cory Doctorow coined the phrase enshittification, I'm positive he didn't see this coming. Today's newsletter from 404 Media tells the tale of an everyday data hero whose coding science is tight. Unfortunately, in a thread on Reddit, he explains that, with the help of AI, he has used his powers for evil.
The post, made by a user named Ill_Car_7351, advertised a database of poop images collected by an AI poop-analyzing app he launched several years ago. Basically, 25,000 people had been photographing their poop and uploading it to his app. He'd been collecting, analyzing, and annotating the images, and now wanted to sell access to them:
"I've got 150k+ labeled and classified images of 💩 from roughly 25K different people. Hard to obtain, useful for ML (machine learning) training, cancer studies etc. Feels like I'm sitting on a pile of shi..y coins but can't find who wants them."
Yeah.
The database was compiled by an app called PoopCheck: take a photo of your ca-ca, and the app will, using AI, rate your doings using the Bristol Stool Scale. I have so many questions about this, and I am afraid to ask any of them. 404's Jason Koebler is a braver soul than I. He tracked down the Reddit user and told him that he was interested in buying his shit list. But it's not just the data that's on offer — you can also invest in the shit photos uploaded by a community of tens of thousands of users.
Despite myself, I found Koebler's shit posting to be a fascinating read. You can see how the whole thing goes down over on the 404 website.
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