New AI can guess whether you're gay or straight from a photograph

[Bebe 17,289]

Artificial intelligence can accurately guess whether people are gay or straight based on photos of their faces, according to new research suggesting that machines can have significantly better “gaydar” than humans.

The study from Stanford University – which found that a computer algorithm could correctly distinguish between gay and straight men 81% of the time, and 74% for women – has raised questions about the biological origins of sexual orientation, the ethics of facial-detection technology and the potential for this kind of software to violate people’s privacy or be abused for anti-LGBT purposes.

The machine intelligence tested in the research, which was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and first reported in the Economist, was based on a sample of more than 35,000 facial images that men and women publicly posted on a US dating website. The researchers, Michal Kosinski and Yilun Wang, extracted features from the images using “deep neural networks”, meaning a sophisticated mathematical system that learns to analyze visuals based on a large dataset.

The research found that gay men and women tended to have “gender-atypical” features, expressions and “grooming styles”, essentially meaning gay men appeared more feminine and vice versa. The data also identified certain trends, including that gay men had narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads than straight men, and that gay women had larger jaws and smaller foreheads compared to straight women.

Human judges performed much worse than the algorithm, accurately identifying orientation only 61% of the time for men and 54% for women. When the software reviewed five images per person, it was even more successful – 91% of the time with men and 83% with women. Broadly, that means “faces contain much more information about sexual orientation than can be perceived and interpreted by the human brain”, the authors wrote.

The paper suggested that the findings provide “strong support” for the theory that sexual orientation stems from exposure to certain hormones before birth, meaning people are born gay and being queer is not a choice. The machine’s lower success rate for women also could support the notion that female sexual orientation is more fluid.

While the findings have clear limits when it comes to gender and sexuality – people of color were not included in the study, and there was no consideration of transgender or bisexual people – the implications for artificial intelligence (AI) are vast and alarming. With billions of facial images of people stored on social media sites and in government databases, the researchers suggested that public data could be used to detect people’s sexual orientation without their consent.

Read More: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/07/new-artificial-intelligence-can-tell-whether-youre-gay-or-straight-from-a-photograph

[Irrelevant 20,293]

3 minutes ago, Bebe said:

including that gay men had narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads than straight men

THATS ME 

[viniferrett 16,684]

well, I can do that too 

[Bebe 17,289]

2 minutes ago, Irrelevant said:

THATS ME 

Lowkey though:

"narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads"

I think Gaga might be a gay man.

[Irrelevant 20,293]

Just now, Bebe said:

Lowkey though:

I think Gaga might be a gay man.

 

7 minutes ago, Bebe said:

and that gay women had larger jaws and smaller foreheads compared to straight women.

inb4 Gaga is a persona from the male pop star, Jo Calderone 

[Dayman 6,251]

"Narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads"

Does this mean I have to be bi now?

[Petie Estie 5,707]

9 minutes ago, Bebe said:

While the findings have clear limits when it comes to gender and sexuality – people of color were not included in the study, and there was no consideration of transgender or bisexual people

um....that's not great practice if you're trying to teach AI what gay is. lol. This is so weird, like why was it all white people i don't get it 

[Luxe Ford 3,481]

I thought it was allready confirmed sexual orientation was a question of epigenetics (the part of your dna that can change). Not all identical twins have the same sexuality, so there's something happening in the womb that sorts us gays out as the lucky ones.

I did two tests online that said they could tell my sexuality and both said I was 100% straight. Another one said my name is Noah, and it's not, so...

 

 

[weed 78,937]

I don't understand why it only works on white people lmaooo but this is a little creepy.... I've been thinking about it tho lol like I think people just MUST be gay with their faces sometimes..... like Kurt from Glee, no way could I ever imagine him straight sorry. 

[Aura Veil 2,395]

Need to upload a picture of shawn mendez. Immediately.

[Kanyeee West 2,204]

my god, this is so untrue.

[Bjaf 1,336]

This is so creepy though.  I don't think we want for anyone to be able to tell whether we're gay in this day and age. Even though it's great that this further validates that being gay isn't a choice, I think it would mostly serve people with bad intentions, such as authorities which are looking to discriminate the LGBT community. This could be really dangerous for a lot of people.

[Sizzily 14,571]

2 minutes ago, Taka said:

my god, this is so untrue.

What part? 

[Kanyeee West 2,204]

1 minute ago, Sizzily said:

What part? 

The data also identified certain trends, including that gay men had narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads than straight men 

[HANZ 4,380]

a lot of people REALLY do have an obssesion with the intimate lives of other people

they really need to do what you do on bed