Easy Lookup, Impossible Vision

Description

A black-and-white stick-figure comic shows one person requesting, "When a user takes a photo, the app should check whether they're in a national park..." and a developer at a desk replying, "Sure, easy GIS lookup. Gimme a few hours." The requester then adds, "... and check whether the photo is of a bird," and the developer answers, "I'll need a research team and five years." The caption at the bottom says, "In CS, it can be hard to explain the difference between the easy and the virtually impossible." The joke contrasts simple geospatial metadata or coordinate lookup with historically hard computer vision and image classification problems that sound equally simple to non-specialists.

Common Tags

MachineLearning AILimitations ImageProcessingAlgorithms ComputationalComplexityTheory RealWorldComplexity StakeholderExpectations SoftwareEstimation RequirementsAmbiguity TechnicalExplanation ProblemSolvingTechniques TechnicalAbsurdity Computerscience

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick The product spec said `isBird(): boolean`; the implementation notes said `invent modern computer vision`.

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

The product spec said `isBird(): boolean`; the implementation notes said `invent modern computer vision`.
@Algoinde 1y

Well... they gave her a research team and five years.
1. @azizhakberdiev 1y
  
  It is hard when work is underpaid. Even harder if they pay too much
@mpolovnev 1y

The app will also check all user's local photos in case there's any CP
1. Deleted Account 1y
  
  And will recommend new based on user's preferences?
  
  dev_meme 1y
  
  And perform AI photo enhancement
@reglnk 1y

— ... and check whether the photo is of a bird. — sure, gimme python and chatgpt (🤢)
dev_meme 1y

Plot twist: it's a photo of a cock