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by alexhaber 2152 days ago
Is this claiming to detect 99% of CSAM or claiming to distinguish between CSAM and non-CSAM with 99% accuracy?

Relevant: https://bohemian.ai/blog/99-accuracy-99-lie/

1 comments

> Thorn, the non-profit behind Safer, says it spots the content with greater than 99% precision.

Sounds like it's claiming 99% precision, so 99% of positives are true positives.

Recall probably isn't great, because (a) if it were great they'd brag about it and (b) you don't get to 99% precision without sacrificing some recall.

Seems reasonable to aim high on precision, though, to avoid burying NCMEC in mis-classified data and also to avoid wrongly banning users' content.

What in that article specifically makes you not trust Thorn? They seem to me like they're trying to do good work -- preventing child exploitation -- that necessarily involves partnering with organizations whose values won't always exactly line up with theirs.