Faception, created by a Tel Aviv tech start-up is a software program designed to identify different personality types, including terrorists and pedophiles by analyzing their facial expressions in just a fraction of a second.
ty @kenkeiter: FACEPTION: robots look at your face & decide whether you are an extrovert or a terrorist https://t.co/ondj6sFVrD
— Sam Bowne (@sambowne) May 25, 2016
However, some experts believe artificial intelligence technology when used to identify people has its limits.
"It still requires human verification," Dr Graham MacKenzie, an expert in face recognition at University of Sterling told Sputnik.
"So however good the software is you still need a human to assess the face; and humans are flawed when it comes to face recognition with people unfamiliar to them."
"Software can obviously make things easier for people — it has the potential to rapidly process images, we just don't know how many faces they're examining or missing. What we do know is that there are lots of false identifications of people and human intervention is still needed," Dr MacKenzie told Sputnik.
'Long Way To Go'
Faception has developed 15 so-called "classifiers" to encode facial images from video streams or computer databases and says it can work with existing facial recognition software to identify criminals.
Its classifiers "match an individual with various personality traits and types with a high level of accuracy," the company's website states, and includes the profiles of poker players, pedophiles and terrorists.
21c bat-criminals, holy moley! Rt @small_affair blumo0n @RT_com #Faception pic.twitter.com/oNTk3HrIXH
— lablueyz (@blumo0n) May 25, 2016
"These classifiers represent a certain persona, with a unique personality type, a collection of personality traits or behaviors. Our algorithms can score an individual according to their fit to these classifiers."
However, Dr MacKenzie thinks spotting criminals using artificial intelligence software still has a long way to go:
"The technology does have its benefits, for example employees accessing a building for work, however the number of faces the software has to keep on its database is limited. The population is massive and the problem arises if a particular suspect is not on a criminal database…"
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv tech-firm claims its software can spot a potential terrorist in a split second and has reportedly signed a contract with US Department of Homeland Security.
