Face-Reading AI Will Tell Police When Suspects Are Hiding Truth
Face-Reading AI Will Tell Police When Suspects Are Hiding
Truth
Ellen Milligan Bloomberg June 29, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- American psychologist Paul Ekman’s
research on facial expressions spawned a whole new career of human lie
detectors more than four decades ago. Artificial intelligence could soon take
their jobs.
While the U.S. has pioneered the use of automated
technologies to reveal the hidden emotions and reactions of suspects, the
technique is still nascent and a whole flock of entrepreneurial ventures are
working to make it more efficient and less prone to false signals.
Facesoft, a U.K. start-up, says it has built a database
of 300 million images of faces, some of which have been created by an AI system
modeled on the human brain, The Times reported. The system built by the company
can identify emotions like anger, fear and surprise based on micro-expressions
which are often invisible to the casual observer.
“If someone smiles insincerely, their mouth may smile,
but the smile doesn’t reach their eyes — micro-expressions are more subtle than
that and quicker,” co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Allan Ponniah, who’s
also a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in London, told the newspaper.
Facesoft has approached police in Mumbai about using the
system for monitoring crowds to detect the evolving mob dynamics, Ponniah said.
It has also touted its product to police forces in the U.K.
The use of AI algorithms among police has stirred
controversy recently. A research group whose members include Facebook Inc.,
Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc published a
report in April stating that current algorithms aimed at helping police
determine who should be granted bail, parole or probation, and which help
judges make sentencing decisions, are potentially biased, opaque, and may not
even work.
The Partnership on AI found that such systems are already
in widespread use in the U.S. and were gaining a foothold in other countries
too. It said it opposes any use of these systems.
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Comments
Post a Comment