NEW AI ALGORITHM AND FACIAL TECHNOLOGY CAN IDENTIFY PEOPLE’S POLITICAL AFFILIATION
I have increasing misgivings when it comes to facial recognition, and I’m not even African-American. And for those who don’t know why that’s relevant, facial recognition has a pretty sketchy history when it comes to correctly identifying folks who aren’t white, making some pretty unfortunate and even traumatic errors. But biometrics seem to be ok, so far. Right up until there’s a major data breach and major nefarious acts happen as a result. But to be fair, facial recognition keeps getting more sophisticated, if not better. But I’m pretty taken aback to learn that there’s a new AI analysis of it that experts say can identify a person’s political affiliation just by their face.
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STUDY USED 591 PARTICIPANTS IN TESTING POLITICAL AFFILIATION WITH FACIAL RECOGNITION
Now that’s the kind of news that could make anyone a little nervous, considering. This news or, rather, claim, came out in a peer-reviewed journal, American Psychologist. The study says that a combination of AI and facial recognition can assess a person’s blank-expressioned face and identify their political affiliation. The study was done by researchers at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. It used 591 participants who had to answer a questionnaire, and then the new AI algorithm scanned images of their faces to try to identify their political identities. The questionnaire, of course, was to confirm the accuracy of the process.
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STUDY AUTHORS CLAIN POLITICAL AFFILIATION RESULTS WERE OF A HIGH DEGREE OF ACCURACY
The study says their new AI facial rec technology had a high degree of accuracy, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. The researchers compared their success with being “on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness.” If this study’s findings are accurate, it means this process will only improve with more analytical tools. And that could very well be concerning if you think about today’s political polarity in the United States. In a couple years, someone could take your picture waiting in line to vote, and within minutes potentially target you to prevent said vote.
Maybe facial recognition and AI are even more concerning than we already thought?
