This week a study from researchers over at Stanford University discovered that its ‘Gaydar’ AI technology was able to accurately determine if someone is gay or straight by analysing photos of their face.
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The researchers faced huge backlash from LGBTQ advocates who called the study “junk science”, claiming that not only could the technology out people, but it could put their lives at risk, particularly in brutal regimes that view homosexuality as a punishable offence.
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Despite the criticism, one of the experts who created the ‘Gaydar’ software has claimed that this is only the beginning and that the technology will soon be able to work out people’s political leanings and possibly even their IQ from photos of their face.
Dr Michal Kosinski says the technique, which involved “training” AI to recognise distinctive features using a large database of photographs, can be applied to political views too.
Kosinski said:
The face is an observable proxy for a wide range of factors, like your life history, your development factors, whether you’re healthy.
The technologies sound very dangerous and scary on the surface, but if used properly or ethically, they can really improve our existence.
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I’m not entirely sure how this type of technology could improve our existence. Surely this would raise similar complications that the LGBTQ advocates pointed out. Being able to “figure out” someone’s political leanings could be potentially dangerous and could be used to out people in countries where you would want to keep that sort of thing a secret.
Also, what the hell does a Tory or leftie face look like anyway? If there is such a thing then I’m going to predict that David Cameron’s face is probably the most accurate example of an archetypal Tory there is.
