They create software that identifies politicians wasting their time on cellphones

In most Latin American countries there are several politicians who have been discovered with a certain passion to pay more attention to their cell phones than to plenary sessions or to the debates of their respective congresses. Yes indeed, many were seen chatting, watching videos and even playing games on their mobile devices, all while dealing with topics of great relevance to their country.

However, it seems that this problem does not arise only with the Latin American political class, but the so-called “First World” countries also have small pockets of leaders who prefer to focus their attention on their mobiles rather than on colleagues who. are in front of them, they speak.

In fact, one of the cases that became more famous on the Internet happened in Belgium, in 2019, when the minister and president of the Flemish region of this country, Jan Jambon, sparked criticism after camera caught him playing Angry Birds amid political debate.

This situation has sparked a movement against Belgian politicians who would rather check their social networks than pay attention to a response from an opposition politician, or who even avoid supporting a member of their party in search of a news. law.

For this reason, a digital artist known as Dries Depoorter decidió crear “The Flemish Thieves”, a program that works with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and whose only intention is to take in perfumes to Belgian politicians who concentrate their efforts on the constant revision of the cell phone, and expose them by uploading the video on social networks.

“Every meeting of the Flemish government in Belgium is broadcast live on a YouTube channel. When a live broadcast starts, the software searches for phones and tries to identify a distracted politician. This is done using AI and facial recognition. The video of the distracted politician is then posted on a Twitter and Instagram account with the protagonist tagged, ”explains Dries Depoorter’s official page.

Additionally, the website says the software used to expose politicians was developed in Python, “and uses machine learning to detect phones and facial recognition to identify the politician.”

“The software started working on July 5, 2021. If there is no live meeting, the software will check the oldest uploaded videos on the YouTube channel.”

As expected, “The Flemish Scrollers” was well received. In less than 24 hours since its launch, the Twitter account already has more than 3,500 subscribers and four publications, being the protagonist of the first (believe it or not) Jan Ham. The other “trapped” members of Congress were Maaike De Vreese, Peter Van Rompuy and Bart Somers.

“I downloaded this project 20 hours ago and I have never received so many reactions”, was a message that Dries Depoorter published in the note of the official press release.

However, not all reviews have been positive, as some accuse “The Flemish Scrollers” of serving as an excuse to blame anyone who checks the cell phone without valid argument. Several Internet users have pointed out that the fact that a politician takes his cell phone for a few seconds is not proof that he was wasting time on it. Many people store crucial information on their mobile devices, so that a manager looking at them can search for that information, perhaps to share it with others.

The truth is that for now, with errors and successes, this software can help reduce the number of politicians who focus on their cellphones before an important debate, and it can also be a useful tool in this part of the world. world.

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