If you’ve been sharing nudes on Zoom, just know it’s using AI to watch you

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The video conferencing tool Zoom has been having a hard time dealing with issues on its platform during the huge influx of users due to everyone being stuck at home. “Zoombombing” is on the rise, where bored people join active meetings to try and play porn via screen sharing, but what if you actually want to get your rocks off?

Yes, there’s an upswing of horny, housebound humans using Zoom to get their freak on in virtual sex parties. I mean, it’s just human nature, right? Get bored, get horny, get satisfaction. The rub is that Zoom’s acceptable use policy forbids anything like “nudity, violence, pornography, sexually explicit material, or criminal activity.”

Zoom told Rolling Stone that it’s using machine learning as one of their tools to “proactively identify accounts that may be in violation.” That makes me worry. I mean, we’ve reported on pretty much every single company that claims to use “machine learning” who turned out to be using contractors to watch, listen, and transcribe whatever was being said on their platform.

Facebook does it with Portal, and with Messenger, Microsoft uses contractors with Xbox, Cortana, and Skype. Google had contractors listening to Google Assistant queries, Amazon had contractors watching Ring footage, Amazon Cloud cams, and listening to Alexa; and even the bastion of privacy, Apple, had people listening to Siri queries.

If everyone else is doing it, can we reasonably accept that Zoom isn’t? I don’t know, but I know I won’t be joining any Zoom calls without pants on.

What do you think? Does this use of AI worry you? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Hackers are selling over 500,000 Zoom passwords, so switch to Discord already
• Google Meet just got a much-needed Zoom-like upgrade – here’s what is new
• The latest thing to be delayed due to the coronavirus? New emoji
• Verizon cancels at-home technician visits amid coronavirus pandemic

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.