通过会议赞助关系，揭示计算机视觉技术如何被军事与监控领域利用。
The Weaponization of Computer Vision: Tracing Military-Surveillance Ties through Conference Sponsorship
- 分析会议赞助商，追踪计算机视觉与军用/监控技术的关联。
- 44%的赞助公司直接涉及军事或监控应用。
- 赞助关系可作为识别技术武器化的重要线索，适合政策研究者参考。
计算机视觉是人工智能的核心领域，致力于视觉数据的计算分析、理解与生成。尽管其历史根植于军事资助，并日益用于战争场景，该领域常自我定位为中立的技术实践，回避对其双重用途的讨论。然而，已有报告指出，计算机视觉系统正被系统性地武器化，用于支持造成伤害的技术，如监控或作战。本文通过收集计算机视觉核心研究交流平台——学术会议的赞助商数据，研究该领域在军事与监控领域的应用程度。我们提出，会议赞助不仅表明公司对领域的投资，还赋予其塑造研究方向的特权地位。通过分析赞助商活动，发现44%的公司具有直接的军事或监控应用关联。此外，通过两个案例研究，探讨了赞助关系作为揭示技术武器化手段的潜力与局限。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Computer vision, a core domain of artificial intelligence (AI), is the field that enables the computational analysis, understanding, and generation of visual data. Despite being historically rooted in military funding and increasingly deployed in warfare, the field tends to position itself as a neutral, purely technical endeavor, failing to engage in discussions about its dual-use applications. Yet it has been reported that computer vision systems are being systematically weaponized to assist in technologies that inflict harm, such as surveillance or warfare. Expanding on these concerns, we study the extent to which computer vision research is being used in the military and surveillance domains. We do so by collecting a dataset of tech companies with financial ties to the field's central research exchange platform: conferences. Conference sponsorship, we argue, not only serves as strong evidence of a company's investment in the field but also provides a privileged position for shaping its trajectory. By investigating sponsors' activities, we reveal that 44% of them have a direct connection with military or surveillance applications. We extend our analysis through two case studies in which we discuss the opportunities and limitations of sponsorship as a means for uncovering technological weaponization.
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