It鈥檚 no surprise that Amazon and the CIA are interested in your data, but the new information they鈥檙e looking to collect may seem a bit off-brand. DigitalGlobe, alongside chipmaker Nvidia, is partnering with Amazon and the venture arm of the CIA to map out the constantly evolving parts of urban landscapes 鈥� including trash heaps.
Using SpaceNet, an algorithm based on the same technology that fuels the facial-recognition software used by companies like Facebook, DigitalGlobe will eventually map high-resolution images of up to half a million square miles of the Earth鈥檚 surface. There鈥檚 one big difference, though: Instead of collecting information about buildings, like Google Maps, SpaceNet will train its A.I. to algorithmically collect precise data on objects such as waste and commercial traffic.
The MIT Review of Technology reported recently that DigitalGlobe released its first set of data, a detailed set of images of the Rio de Janeiro that depict the city in up to 50-centimeter resolution. The images released only outlined the city鈥檚 buildings, but as the SpaceNet A.I. grows smarter it will be able to identify more distinct data. Such information could be used to improve public services 鈥攍ike trash collection 鈥� or even track economic output in regions, MIT reported.
This isn鈥檛 the first time the CIA has partnered with Amazon. In 2014, the CIA gave Amazon Web Services $600 million to develop a computing cloud that services all of the agencies in U.S. intelligence.
According to its website, Digital Globe鈥檚 services include providing data to humanitarian relief efforts as well as offering 鈥渄efense and intelligence鈥� surveillance.
So what interest does the CIA have in making your garbage collection more efficient? It鈥檚 hard to say.
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