Unpredictable consequences of technical illiteracy: U.S. judge rules pinch-to-zoom gesture as "artificial intelligence by Apple"

When defendant Kyle Rittenhouse appeared in court to answer questions about the sequence of events leading up to his shooting and killing of a man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the jury was forced to watch the video evidence play back in miniature. All because Rittenhouse's defense attorney floated the wild idea that Apple has "artificial intelligence" that manipulates the footage when you zoom in on the iPad with a "pinch," and Judge Bruce Schroeder totally bought into that nonsense.

"The iPads that Apple makes have artificial intelligence that allows you to view things through three dimensions and logarithms" the defense insisted. "They use artificial intelligence or their logarithms to create what they think happens. So it's not really an enhanced video, it's Apple's iPad program creating what it thinks it is, not what actually exists."

While it's unclear from the full video of the trial whether the judge actually expressly forbade the prosecution from using an iOS device or otherwise enhancing the footage, the result was the same: instead of the iPad, jurors watched the original, reduced clips on a Windows computer connected to a large TV in the courtroom. The images, however, did not fill the entire TV screen.

Judge Schroeder argued that it was the prosecution, not the defense, that had the burden of proving that Apple was not using artificial intelligence to manipulate the videos. He demanded that they provide an expert to testify, but did not allow the prosecution an adequate break to find such an expert. The judge suggested that the prosecutors could somehow find such an expert in 20 minutes. Of course, the prosecution failed to do so.

This case vividly demonstrates how vulnerable adequate and sane people with the standard baggage of modern technical knowledge can be in the face of an illiterate, but powerful person. And certainly in the conditions of case law such tricks should not be allowed in principle, because the consequences when a court verdict is passed can be absolutely unpredictable.

There are six criminal charges against Rittenhouse in connection with the Kenosha shooting. He is accused of killing two people.

Source: appleinsider

Illustration: petapixel