US Anti-Terrorism Technology is Monitoring YouTube Videos

By Tom Foremski - March 12, 2007

Andy Plesser over at Beet.TV has an interesting interview with Alex Laats from Defense contractor BBN about using advanced technologies to analyze and transcribe YouTube videos with 80 per cent accuracy.

Beet.TV Exclusive Defense Contractor has Analyzed, Transcribed and Organized 1.5 Million YouTube

A major defense department contractor, BBN of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has applied a national security technology application, developed to fight terrorism, to "crawl" the audio tracks of public Internet videos through its Podzinger subsidiary. 

Podzinger has analyzed, transcribed and organized some 1.5 million YouTube clips since December and is crawling many thousand every day, according to Alex Laats, who heads the unit.

It is interesting that government agencies have this technology and it means that Big Brother is here and now, so let's get used to it.

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By Tom Foremski - March 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comment | Category: Future Watch
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Comments (3)

Three cheers for BBN. A good use of AI.

IMHO, people are way too concerned about privacy and not looking at the catastrophic consequences of another 9/11. Sticking one's head in the sand is not a solution to terrorist threats and monitoring is a lot better than taking higher punitive preventive actions.

I'm a Libertarian at heart, but Libertarianism is kind of like Santa Claus: You outgrow the belief when reality sets in.


I don't know how interested Big Brother really is in YouTube videos, but see what I have to say about the interview and article at www.blogzinger.com


bob tallon:

Big brooother may be monitoring but the real problem is they are more concerned about stopping free speech and accurate criticism than protecting the nation.
If government was really concerned about our nation cargos would be inspected as well as people. The bottom line is allowing some attacks keeps the war machine and public motivated for war. This is not the view of our military but absolutely is of corporations. Corporations love war.


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