Data Mining And The CIA

Brotha Z writes "It seems that the CIA has developed a piece of software labeled "Oasis" that can convert the audio from television and radio broadcasts in to text. This software is stated to be able to determine the sex of the speaker, if the speaker is a different person than the original speaker - and if one of the speakers is named, it will continue to place the name next to the correct speaker from that point on. More information on this multi-faceted piece of software can be found here." Hmmm. Sounds like some nice speech recognition technology ("perfect demo" alert!), but as a taxpayer, something rings badly about it. If they're going to use my money to spy on me, can't they at least open source the code so I can dictate a letter?