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After the identification of people in criminal and forensic investigations using their fingerprints, DNA analysis, voice analysis and then iris fingerprints, today we are witnessing the identification of a text writer on electronic platforms, perhaps with the same precision, using “text fingerprinting analysis”.
Developers at a US intelligence research unit seek to use technology designed to combat online misinformation to identify, using artificial intelligence, a person based on how they write on social networks.
What is a “fingerprint digital texte” ?
According to the American specialized site “Nextgov”, experts from the Advanced Intelligence Research Projects Unit “IARPA”, a research wing of the American intelligence services, are working on the use of artificial intelligence within a program called “HIATUS” to analyze the hidden structure of text on the Internet and attribute it to its owner.
The new text fingerprinting technology will work the same way forensic experts currently identify someone based on their handwriting. Humans have small individual differences between them that define their idiosyncrasies in how they write a word, online writers also have their own texts and methods when writing sentences online.
What the program does is identify writing features such as: word placement and syntax, through which it is possible to determine who wrote a certain text. It’s like your fingerprint.
Dr. Ziad Sarayrah, an expert in artificial intelligence, explains this technology to us by saying that it “mainly relies on third generation algorithms related to modern networks and deep learning, unlike first and second generation algorithms which depended on word matching or parsing, like with so-called chatbots.
Photo credit, DR. ZIAD SARAYRA
Dr. Ziad Saraira – Expert in Artificial Intelligence
He adds, “This program looks for certain sentence patterns, not just words, and repetition in the speech pattern, and repetition is a key point to getting accurate results. If you’re asking 100 people the same question or you ask them to describe something, you’ll get endless possibilities for answers.”
Accuracy out of reach of people
What allows this new technology to achieve this precision, according to him?
He claims that “the amount of information processed by these algorithms and operating through a system of special research and programming is subjected to data filtering as it passes through several stages, and then the information is confirmed at each step. That is, human capacities are unable to achieve the same results.”
Researchers hope that “text fingerprinting” technology will play a major role in identifying the owners of disinformation and human trafficking campaigns by identifying stylistic characteristics such as word placement, sentence phrasing and language. style.
And a report from cybersecurity firm Imperva released in 2020 that found more than a quarter of internet users aren’t humans, but rather automated accounts that can spread misinformation or obscenity and the like, isn’t the use of human aliases.
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User concerns
The BBC interviewed a number of young men and girls about this technology, and most of them said it was a good idea, which can help safeguard the intellectual rights of anyone sharing their opinions or analysis, and to limit the dissemination of false information and news because the original source is not known.
But others have expressed concern that the analysis and tracing of their texts could lead to their identities being known, without authorization or justification of the existence of a “textual fingerprinting” program. . Perhaps the unstable political conditions in their countries and their concern with concealing their identity affected their view of this technology.
Fight against counterfeiting or invasion of privacy?
Dr. Nadine Al-Hajj, also an expert in artificial intelligence, has a different opinion: “Technology is a double-edged sword. If we like to use automated assistants to organize our work and appointments, using the Internet all the time , and provide information about ourselves, our ideas, our interests and others, we must know that we are vulnerable to hacking. And for this new program which relies on text analysis to achieve its objective, in as a last resort this may be considered a clear invasion of privacy, even if the purpose is noble.”
Photo credit, DR. NADINE AL HAJ
Dr. Nadine El Hajj – Expert in Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Nadine explains: “We have seen examples of large companies such as Apple refusing to disclose their users’ data even if there is a court order in the context of a criminal investigation, on the pretext that it is personal data and cannot be shared by the technology service provider because it considers it a violation of users’ trust in it.”
Regardless of the controversy, this is certainly a leap forward in the series of techniques for identifying people in the use of technology.
HIATUS’ team of experts seeks to analyze the hidden structure of online text and its attribution or “text fingerprint” to develop systems that can work in a variety of subject areas and text types, with many foreign languages included in the program, before sending it to security and intelligence agencies to implement it according to their own needs.
That’s why officials don’t speculate in detail about use cases that might fall outside the intended scope.