Ever been to a police station and had to pick a suspect out of lineup? Nowadays, computers can do that to anyone, including you. Even Facebook can pick you out.
There’s an experiment going on in Facebook’s lab headquarters. They want to recognize you even when they can’t see your face. They want to recognize who you are by your shape, clothes, hair, even your favorite pose. Yann LeCun leads Facebook‘s artificial intelligence program. You know how you can recognize somebody, especially somebody you know really well, without looking at their face? LeCun wants to see if computers can do the same. LeCun’s team studied 40,000 photos, some with their faces covered or turned away. They ran these photos through a neutral network. The final algorithm correctly recognized people’s faces, whether covered or not, 83% of the time. This could be a driving force behind an upcoming app called Facebook Moments. That should be ready for the public by next week. Facebook Moments will comb through a user’s photos, from family reunions to celebrations to that wild vacation/walk of shame. It’s believed this tool will even alert someone when a photo of him/herself pops up. I’m sure that will make privacy rights advocates happy.
And I’m glad they’re addressing the issue of privacy with this facial recognition. Controversy often follows when airports practice facial recognition in the name of safety. You know there’s a firestorm coming when a social media entity practices it in the name of social togetherness. It’s kinda fun to try and recognize someone you know in the real world. But for a computer to do it? I have mixed reaction about that. Yes, it can be a good thing. But I often wonder, can this be used for evil? Can this be used to deliberately track and/or stalk someone? Could this technology be used to create a nanny/big brother state?