Graylark closes public access to AI tool for geolocation

A photo of a landscape or a city – only: Where was it taken? The US company Graylark Technologies has developed software that can answer this question. However, it is not intended for the general public – for good reasons.

Geospy is the name of the system that uses artificial intelligence to determine where a photo was taken. It can determine a location relatively precisely – i.e., in which city or area a photo was taken; however, it does not go as far as the street or even house number.

To determine a location, Geospy analyzes information contained in the photo such as vegetation, building style or the distance between buildings. Even the type of road surface is included. The system was previously trained with millions of images from all over the world.

According to the company, it is particularly good at recognizing locations in the USA. But it can also identify locations elsewhere in the world. This means that Geospy enables untrained people to do something in a very short space of time that Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) experts have to train for years and put a lot of effort into each time.

Geospy is designed for government agencies

Graylark Technologies developed Geospy specifically for public authorities, including law enforcement agencies, and launched it in 2024. Until recently, however, the system was publicly accessible, as the US magazine 404 Media reports. 404 Media was able to set up a free user account and use the AI system.

In 404 Media's tests, Geospy identified the location on clear and well-lit smartphone photos as well as on low-resolution images from a surveillance camera in a public space. Graylark closed public access to Geospy as a result.

What can be practical – Who hasn't held an old vacation photo in their hand and wondered where it was taken – also offers immense opportunities for abuse by private individuals and authorities.

“It's one thing for the police to apply this to a photo that is evidence in the investigation of a serious crime. It's quite another thing to use it en masse to create a geolocation database or gather information on people who are not involved in suspected illegal activity,” Cooper Quintin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told 404 Media. He also fears that law enforcement officials could arrest bystanders based on inaccurate or false geolocations from Geospy.

(wpl)