After a study found that artificial intelligence could be successful in predicting a person’s political orientation based on images of neutral faces, researchers say that facial recognition technology is “more than previously thought possible.” It warns that it poses a “serious challenge to privacy”.
a Recently published research The American Psychologist says that an algorithm’s ability to accurately infer a person’s political views is “on par with the accuracy with which it predicts job success in a job interview or with alcohol’s ability to promote aggression.” . Lead author Michal Kosinski told Fox News Digital that 591 participants were tested before the AI captured what he called a numerical “fingerprint” on their faces and compared it to a database of responses to predict their opinions. He said he completed a questionnaire about his political orientation.
“I don’t think people realize how much they’re being exposed just by putting a photo out there,” said Kosinski, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
“We know that people’s sexual orientation, political orientation, and religious views should be protected. It used to be different. It used to be that anyone could go into their Facebook account and, for example, You could see people’s political views, their likes, the pages they followed, etc. But years ago it became clear that it was too dangerous for policymakers, Facebook, and journalists. “Facebook shut it down,” he continued.
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The study used AI to predict people’s political orientation based on images of neutral faces.
“But you can still go to Facebook and look at someone’s photo, and that person has never met you and didn’t allow you to see their photo. You never tried to share your sexuality… yet Facebook shows you a photo of yourself, and what does it show you?” Our research shows that this essentially “It’s to some extent equivalent to just telling us what our political orientation is,” Kosinski added.
In this study, images of participants were collected in a highly controlled manner, the authors said.
“Participants wore black T-shirts that were adjusted to cover their clothing using binder clips. They removed all jewelry and shaved facial hair as needed.” Face wipes were used to remove the makeup until no residue was detected. Their hair was pulled back using hair ties, bobby pins, and headbands, being careful not to blow the hair away. ” they wrote.
The facial recognition algorithm VGGFace2 then examined the images and determined “facial descriptors, or numeric vectors, that are unique to that individual and consistent across different images,” it said.
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AI can reportedly predict political direction from expressionless faces. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images/File)
“The descriptors extracted from a particular image are compared with the descriptors stored in the database. If they are similar enough, the faces are considered a match. Here, we use linear regression “We map facial descriptors on a political orientation scale and use this mapping to predict the political orientation of never-before-seen faces.”
The authors said the findings “underscore the urgency for academics, the public, and policymakers to recognize and address the potential risks of facial recognition technology to individual privacy,” adding that “politically oriented An analysis of facial features associated with… reveals that conservatives tend to: My lower face is big. ”
“Perhaps most importantly, our findings suggest that widespread biometric surveillance technology is more of a threat than previously thought,” the study warns. “Previous research has shown that natural facial images convey information about political orientation and other intimate features. But whether that prediction was made possible by self-presentation or whether stable facial images It was unclear whether this was enabled by features, or by both. Our results suggest that stable facial features convey important information about the amount of information that individuals perceive about their privacy. means you don’t have much control over it. ”
“Algorithms can be applied very easily, quickly and cheaply to millions of people,” Kosinski told Fox News Digital. “It’s more of a cautionary tale” about technology that is “increasingly important”, he said. ”
AI can reportedly predict political direction from expressionless faces. (Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images/File)
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The authors write that “even rough estimates of people’s personality traits can greatly improve the efficiency of online mass persuasion campaigns,” and that “academics, the public, and policy makers should pay attention and “Strengthening policies regulating image recording and processing should be considered.”
