Video games have pioneered AI developments since Nim was released in 1951. In the decades since, game developers have worked to improve AIs to provide a more enjoyable experience for a growing number of people around the world.

Just imagine the horror if those developers found out their work was instead being used for real military purposes without their knowledge. That’s exactly what developers behind the popular Unity game engine discovered.

According to a Vice report, three former and current Unity employees confirmed that much of the company’s contract work is to do with AI programming. That’s of little surprise and wouldn’t be of too much concern if it wasn’t conducted under the “GovTech” department with seemingly a high degree of secrecy.

“It should be very clear when people are stepping into the military initiative part of Unity,” one of Vice’s sources said, on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Vice discovered several deals with the Department of Defense, including two six-figure contracts for “modeling and simulation prototypes” with the US Air Force.

Unity bosses clearly understand that some employees may not be entirely comfortable with knowing their work could be used for war. One memo instructs managers to use the terms “government” or “defense” instead of “military.”

In an internal Slack group, Unity CEO John Riccitello promised to have a meeting with employees.

“Whether or not I’m working directly for the government team, I’m empowering the products they’re selling,” wrote Riccitello. “Do you want to use your tools to catch bad guys?”

That question is likely to receive some passionate responses. After all, few of us are going to forget the backlash and subsequent resignation of Googlers following revelations about the company’s since-revoked ‘Project Maven’ contract with the Pentagon.

You can find Vice’s full report here.

(Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash)

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The new Unity Computer Vision Datasets contain synthetic data which is generated to meet specific demands. Unity aims to break down the cost barrier typically faced in obtaining high-quality synthetic datasets.

Dr Danny Lange, SVP of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at Unity, said:

“By creating a synthetic version of datasets that mirror validated privacy rules and accurately reflect real-world data, we enable these groundbreaking datasets to get into the hands of more innovators.

Essentially, these datasets empower companies to plan for and simulate scenarios they haven’t yet experienced, with a sizable increase in user data that mimics what they’d find over time in the real world.

As a result, we’re seeing smarter indoor environments, such as cashier-less grocery stores, and more as our customers discover new applications.”

A technique called ‘domain randomisation’ is used to generate Unity’s datasets. The process outputs permutations of how objects of interest are positioned and orientated, including variances in lighting and camera angles as well as the many other countless configurations Unity enables.

Traditional methods of real-life data collection are labour-intensive and carry a greater risk of privacy issues and biases we’ve seen repeatedly over recent years. Unity’s datasets aim to meet strict privacy and regulatory standards.

“Synthetic data is revolutionising the training of machine learning models as it overcomes many of the shortcomings of manually collected and labelled real-world data,” explains Lange. 

Datasets can either be created by a developer using free access to the Unity Perception SDK – and a library of labelling and randomisation tools – or purchased from Unity’s computer vision experts.

Purchasing datasets is based on a tiered pricing model where the price per image decreases proportionally to the demand for more synthetic images.

“Exploring what’s possible, and connecting creators with the affordable data they need to make the right decisions continues to drive Unity, no matter the industry,” adds Lange.

“This is why our team will be available to assist customers in ensuring that the datasets produced meet the right criteria for their needs.”

More information about Unity’s AI datasets can be found here.

(Image by Comfreak from Pixabay)

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