This browser tool uses AI to fix an exploit even Mark Zuckerberg is afraid of

Jason Mayes/YouTube

• A Google web engineer made a browser tool for fun that edits humans out of a video feed in real time.
• The tool uses neural networks that detect and remove humans while still showing everything else going on in a video.
• It could be used as a clever privacy measure to avoid webcam spying, ensuring users are never caught on camera against their will.
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Hiding in plain sight just got easier, thanks to a clever browser extension built by a Google web engineer.

Jason Mayes published the "Disappearing People" extension last week, touting its ability to hide humans from live video feeds in real time. The browser extension uses machine learning to detect humans, differentiate them from the video's background, and edit them out before they appear on film. The tool was previously featured in Gizmodo.

Mayes describes the tool as an "experiment," and it's still in its early stages - his demonstration shows that the software isn't perfect, yet. But it could theoretically be used to clean up live video footage, or to protect the privacy of people paranoid about webcam surveillance (albeit a more high-tech solution than covering one's webcam with paper, like Mark Zuckerberg does).

The tool was made using Javascript and TensorFlow, an open-source library maintained by Google. Mayes has made the extension available for download on GitHub.

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