Monday 17 February 2020

Dodgy Readings of Emotions?

With more companies and agencies using AI facial recognition systems to screen potential candidates for positions, to carry out border checks etc, perhaps now is the time the re-ask the fundamental question 'Are human emotional expressions truly universal?' The answer appears to be that it is more subtle than that and cultural differences are clearly evident (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/16/ai-systems-claiming-to-read-emotions-pose-discrimination-risks). The degree of commonality between the 'body language' of different cultures has always appeared to be more associated with the ease of producing particular responses (e.g. waving) rather than being something that is genetically encoded. So, although it may be very tempting to save time by using one of the available commercial packages, there are dangers that this will prove discriminatory for some groups and misleading/dangerous in other respects.

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What's In a Critter's Name? 11. Comma butterfly

The Comma butterfly ( Polygonia c-album) gets its name from the punctuation-like mark, on the underside of its wings.