Long long ago, so long you may not even remember, there was a time when your reputation was the only thing at stake on Facebook. But these days, what you post on social media can impact several aspects of your life — from a potential job to your credit score. It seems like we’re all just one poor decision away from a life-changing moment caused by social media.
Well, Facebook now wants to help prevent you from posting that one potentially disastrous photo — using artificial intelligence that will have the ability to make better decisions than a lot of people.
Read more: What you post on Facebook could damage your credit score
How it works
At an event in London, Facebook announced it’s working on technology that will warn users when they’re about to upload photos they probably shouldn’t. Whether it’s a selfie you think looks great (through your late-night beer goggles) or a photo of your kids that probably shouldn’t be available to the public, the social networking giant says its AI will stop those pictures from hitting the Internet.
According to Business Insider, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, Jay Parikh, said image recognition software will start alerting folks if they’re about to upload certain types of photos that maybe shouldn’t be viewed by everyone they know, using new AI technology that it’s building into its image recognition software.
“If I were to upload a photo of my kids playing at the park and I accidentally had it shared with the public, this system could say hey wait a minute, this photo is of your kids,” Parikh said. “Normally you post this to just your family members. Are you sure you want to do this?”
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Facebook hasn’t said when this technology will be available to all users.
“These are demos right now. They have not made it into our products,” said Parikh. “We have to figure out that still.”
So for now, try to use your best judgment.
