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Topics: Technology, Artificial intelligence, World News, Life, Crime
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Madison Burgess
Topics: Technology, Artificial intelligence, World News, Life, Crime
People have been left seriously creeped out by a disturbing AI website that's popped up online.
Now, we all know artificial intelligence is controversial - while some people use ChatGPT as their therapist, others have sworn it off completely. And this website in particular is likely one of the reasons why some people want nothing to do with the whole concept, and to be honest, we get it.
Imagine walking down the street, snapping a photo of a stranger, and immediately being able to find out who they are - well, this is actually too far from the truth.
The website we're talking about is called PimEyes, and according to NPR, it's considered to be 'one of the most powerful publicly available facial recognition tools online'.
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You simply upload a few photos of yourself and the site will instantly trawl every corner of the internet to pull out any photos of you it can find.
Some users have even reported being met with childhood photos they forgot existed, while others have dubbed it a 'stalker's dream' - creepy, right?
One user shared a message on Twitter to make others aware of the website back in 2023, writing: "The most disturbing AI website on the internet. Upload a photo of a person, and AI will find ALL of the images of that person across the internet."
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They added: "The site is called Pimeyes. They use AI for facial recognition combined with reverse image search. I tested it myself and was shocked by the speed and accuracy. Super creepy."
In the replies, a second baffled user wrote: "Craziest thing about this - I uploaded two photos of me today, and it somehow found + recognised a picture of me at 10 years old."
And a third chimed in with: "Ok that’s cool and scary. Only found two images of me, the second of which is from 15 years ago which is the scary part because I don’t even recognise myself in the old pic."
"This is a stalker’s dream" penned another while someone else agreed: "Creepy for sure".
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Another social media user questioned: "Someone could just take a picture of you on the street, upload it to Pimeyes and see your whole life in pictures. RIP privacy. Surely illegal?"
The site has no doubt raised a slew of ethical questions around misuse for surveillance, stalking, and privacy violations. However, some people are actually fans of the site and have tried to use it to monitor which photos of themselves are on the internet.
Someone argued: "I like PimEyes. The tool is controversial - but it is one of the best tools for finding who has used my face without my consent. I then send takedown notices."
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A second added: "Amazing tool for finding people who are trafficked / missing / used for sex work abroad. This tool is meant for investigators and OSINT professionals."
And a third quipped: "Interesting idea…what if you uploaded those age progression pictures of missing children and see if they return any results…could potentially return some missing persons."
The PimEyes website also outlines: "PimEyes is intended solely for personal use. Pursuant to our Terms of Service, any search pertaining to other individuals is strictly prohibited.
"We take all necessary measures to ensure the privacy and protection of our users. We consider non-compliance with our policies to be a grave matter, tantamount to violating the law."