Let’s not trust AI to profile people from their head vibrations

[AhmedAtia]

Let’s not trust AI to profile people from their head vibrations

Digital video surveillance systems can’t just identify who someone is.

They can also work out how someone is feeling and what kind of personality they have.

They can even tell how they might behave in the future. And the key to unlocking this information about a person is the movement of their head.

That is the claim made by the company behind the VibraImage artificial intelligence (AI) system.

(The term “AI” is used here in a broad sense to refer to digital systems that use algorithms and tools such as automated bio-metrics and computer vision).

but digital tools based on VibraImage are being used across a broad range of applications in Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

But as I show in my recent research, published in Science, Technology and Society, there is very little reliable, empirical evidence that VibraImage and systems like it are actually effective at what they claim to do.TNW Conference is back, baby!Secure your spot today at super early bird prices!

Among other things, these applications include identifying “suspect” individuals among crowds of people.

They are also used to grade the mental and emotional states of employees.

Users of VibraImage include police forces, the nuclear industry and airport security.

The technology has already been deployed at two Olympic Games, a FIFA World Cup and a G7 Summit.
AI profile people on their head vibrations

In Japan, clients of such systems include one of the world’s leading facial recognition providers (NEC), one of the largest security services companies (ALSOK), as well as Fujitsu and Toshiba.

And in South Korea, among other uses it is being developed as a contactless lie detection system for use in police interrogations.

Also in China, it has already been officially certified for police use to identify suspicious individuals at airports, border crossings and elsewhere.

Across east Asia and beyond, algorithmic security, surveillance, predictive policing and smart city infrastructure are becoming mainstream. VibraImage forms one part of this emerging infrastructure.

Like other algorithmic emotion detection systems being developed and deployed globally, it promises to take video surveillance to a new level.

As I explain in my paper, it claims to do this by generating information about subjects’ characters and inner lives that they don’t even know about themselves.