AI Facial Profiling, Levels of Paranoia
In this digital age, biometric-based surveillance systems that incorporate artificial intelligence are becoming more common. AI companies claim that their AI technologies can analyze the physical characteristics of a person’s face and thus predict subtle patterns of “suspect” personality types.
Inspired by the recent psychometric research papers who claimed to use an AI to detect the criminal potential of a person based only on a photo of his face, and taking the world of firearms as a starting point, we present a “physiognomic machine”, a computer vision and pattern recognition system that detects the ability of an individual to handle firearms and predicts his potential danger from a biometric analysis of his face. The device is based on a camera-weapon that captures faces as well as a machine with artificial intelligence and a mechanical system that classifies the profiled persons into two categories, those who present a high risk of being a threat and those who present a lower risk.
Between fiction and reality, this installation proposes an experience inspired by the protocols of security infrastructures and takes the individual as the starting point for a critical reflection about algorithmic biases; a narrative that refers to the trust and legitimization of empowering decision-making of intelligent artifacts.
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This project is the result of a collaboration with Laurent Weingart, software and security engineer and Marc Wettstein, mechatronic engineer. It has received the kind support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Fonds Cantonal d'Art Contemporain de Genève.
AI Facial Profiling, Levels of Paranoia
Mirage Festival #7 — Turbulences
Credits: video courtesy of Matcha and thumbnail photo courtesy of Marion Bornaz.
Photographs © HEAD – Genève, Baptiste Coulon and © Sandra Pointet / Local F11, Geneva
CICR — Digital Risk in Situations of Armed Conflict / CodeNode, London 2018