What Machines Can Tell From your Face

iPhone X標誌著以前靠指紋才能證明”你是你”的技術已經被刷臉所淘汰。究竟這個技術對我們日常有什麼影響？

我自己的印象中，第一次對臉部識別技術有感是Facebook相簿會自動tag自己或朋友開始，後來google photo跟各大公司也開始應用。從阿里巴巴開設了自動人臉辨識並支付的智慧超市，再到iPhone X的Face ID刷臉解鎖(最近知道google photo連寵物也可以辨識了…)。

iPhone X標誌著以前靠指紋才能證明”你是你”的技術已經被刷臉所淘汰。作為行業規則定義者，Apple手機的臉部識別技術肯定會快速滲透到我們的日常生活。<經濟學人>在2017年5月的文章中，對臉部識別技術可能帶來的影響表達了深刻的看法，介紹了臉部識別技術對社會的隱私、公平與社交影響。

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前言

• 臉部特徵幫助人們辨別彼此，也是形成複雜社會的基礎

The human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is crucial to formation if complex societies. So is the face’s ability to send emotional signals.

• 技術正在趕上人類閱讀表情的能力

People spend much of their waking lives reading faces. Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. For example, in China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing driver.Apple’s new iphone use it to unlock the homescreen.

• 臉部識別的技術可能改變隱私、公平和信任的定義

The ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to notions of privacy, fairness and trust.

隱私：

• 人臉相比其他特徵最大差異就是可以遠距離生效

One big difference between faces and other biometric data, such as fingerprints, is that they work at a distance

• 執法機構可以追蹤犯罪者，但是公民隱私需要付出代價

photographs of half of America’s adult population are stored in databases that can be used by the FBI. Law-enforcement agencies now have a powerful weapon in their ability to track criminals, but a enormous potential cost to citizens’ privacy.

• 利：自動檢測罕見基因疾病、情緒評估系統可以理解孤獨症的社交訊號

Some firms are analysing face to provide automated diagnoses of rare genetic conditions. Systems that measure emotion may give autistic people a grasp of social signals they find elusive.

• 弊：判斷同性戀，對於生活在同性戀違法國家的同性戀者，一款承諾可以判斷性向的軟體令人恐懼

When shown a pictures of one gay man and one straight man, the algorithm could attribute their sexuality correctly 81% of the time. In countries where homosexuality is a crime, software which promise to infer sexuality from face is an alarming prospect.

公平：

• 非嚴重歧視會變得普遍，例如臉部識別技術讓雇主對員工的偏見成為家常便飯(種族/智商/性向)

Less violent forms of discrimination could also become common. Facial recognition enabling firms to filter all job application for ethnicity and signs if intelligence and sexuality.

• 臉部識別技術存在偏差，例如訓練集都是白人的話，對於非白人則會有因偏差所形成的偏見

Such system may be biased against those who do not have white skin since algorithms trained on data set mostly white faces do not work well with different ethnicities.

信任：

• 社交基礎可能改變，從基於信任的承若轉變成通過計算機解讀某人臉部訊息而得出的風險與收益結果

Dissembling helps grease the wheels of daily life. The basis of social interactions might change from a set of commitments founded on trust to calculations of risk and reward derived from the information a computer attaches to someone’s face.

• 人際關係變得更理性但也更具交易色彩

Relationship might become more rational, but also more transactional.

結尾：

• 法律有助於改善善惡間的平衡，例如數據保護法、反歧視法。

Legislation can help alter the balance of good and bad outcomes. European regulators have embedded a set of principles in forthcoming data protection regulationLaw against discrimination can be applied to employer screening candidates’ images.

• 這些法律規則改變不了大方向，隨著穿戴裝置普及，攝像機只會越來越普遍。微軟雅馬遜都利用自身雲服務提供面部識別服務。這對臉書也是很重要的計畫。政府也不會放棄自身利益。改變正在到來，接受吧

However, such rules cannot alter the direction of travel.Cameras will only become more common with the spread of wearable devices. Amazon and Microsoft are both using their cloud services to offer face recognition; it is central to Facebook’s plans. Governments will not want to forgo its benefits. Change is coming. Face up to it.