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Google ended its free and unlimited Google Photos storage offer this week, starting June 1, 2021 (photos uploaded before that date will not count toward the 15GB limit). The internet collectively lost its mind. Some called the movement a classic bait and switch (Entice users to upload their entire photo library with the promise of free storage and then start uploading.) Others had antitrust concerns (Competitive price like Everpix, Loom, Ever, Picturelife and then start loading.) Then came the machine learning Y surveillance jokes. After we finished training their machine learning models and mining our photo data, Google was simply fine-tuning their business model.
Machine learning needs some kind of input data to train. In most cases, that data must first be tagged by humans. Photos are a good example. In fact, Google has spent years training machine learning models using photos and even delivering some of those results to its users.
The Google Photos app has had a great AI ride. In 2015, the app’s algorithms mistakenly labeled blacks as ‘gorillas’. In 2020, you have a photo editor with ML technology.
So the joke makes sense, although I would take it a step further. How do we know that Google still needs our photos? Because you haven’t closed Google Photos yet. In fact, 9to5Google discovered a new Google Photos feature this week that asks you to train your ML.
Help train machine learning in Google Photos
Google isn’t even trying to hide the purpose of the feature. The Help Center article details it:
Help improve machine learning technology for Google Photos
- On your Android device, open the Google Photos app.
- At the bottom, tap Search.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Help improve Google Photos.
- Answer the questions to give your opinion.
To test it yourself, you will need the latest version of Google Photos for Android. After following the instructions above, you can help Google by answering questions about your photos, such as:
- Printing Preferences: “Would you enjoy a printed version of this photo?”
- Made for you: ‘What do you think of this?’
- Holiday photos: ‘Is this photo about Halloween?’
- Understanding your photos: “Name the most important things about this photo.”
Describing your preferences for printing photos, and if you like collages or animations, it doesn’t seem to be related to machine learning. But both could be used to train a machine learning model that helps Google Photos decide whether and when to make a suggestion. The support article reads as follows: “It may take time to see the impact your contributions have on your account, but your contributions will help improve existing features and create new ones; for example, improved suggestions on which photos to print or higher quality creations you would like. “
The other two tasks – identifying which photos belong to which vacation and listing the content of the photos – are obvious machine learning training.
An old dog learns an old trick
While it wasn’t that explicit, Google Photos has asked ML for help before. In December 2019, Android Police pointed out that it could improve Google Photos by telling it which photos it would like to print and which collages, animations, albums, color pops, movies, and other automated creations appeal to it the most.
We asked Google why the new “improve Google Photos” feature was added this week. “We are always working to improve Google Photos for our users and this is not related to the storage changes we announced this week,” a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat.
The feature leverages Google’s Crowdsource, a crowdsourcing platform the company launched in August 2016. Crowdsource gambles tagging data with points and badges, rather than paying for labor.
Given that Google’s parent company Alphabet made $ 11.2 billion in profit last quarter, eliminating 15GB of free storage and crowdsourcing data tagging seems like strange measures to cut costs.
Rejoice! Even the almighty Google hasn’t automated humans; you still need us to pay for your services and train your AI.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about everything that comes his way that week.
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