Our face says much more about us than we imagine. If the people close to us can see our mood just by looking at us, there are Artificial Intelligences (AI) who know how to do it more thoroughly and are able to draw conclusions for advertising profiling.
What our face says
From the photographs of our faces various information can be obtained, some more immediate, others more elaborate. Gender, age and ethnicity emerge relatively easily. On the other hand, social class, attitudes and predispositions are less evident and may lead to less accurate deductions. There is an entire department of research that examines faces to try to extract as much information as possible. It is not a science but it is capable of generating studies and technologies.
Geopolitical revolution on e-commerce: “The bet is to strengthen an ecosystem”
by Andrea Frollà
02 Maggio 2022
Seeing is believing
The Swiss Digital Initiative, a Geneva-based foundation that works to ensure that technologies respond to ethical valuestogether with the HEAD art school, they have created the ADface tool through which each of us is able to understand what information can be gleaned from their face.
To take measures with the capabilities of the AI for these types of profiling it is sufficient to enable your browser to access the computer camera and connect to the site in charge of the test, be immortalized and take a look at the result. Swiss Digital Initiative emphasizes that no data is collected or used for non-demonstrative purposes or transferred to third parties. After connecting to the page, scroll down to the bottom and click on the black button “Start ADface” and then click on the “I agree to the terms and conditions” button at the end of the page to which you are redirected.
ADface uses an AI capable of examining faces and profiling them to target people with targeted advertisements. The tests we have done appear to be perfectible but it is part of the logic of ADface: it is a test, a demonstration. Companies capable of pouring resources into these AIs can aspire to more precise results.
When the PC camera has finished acquiring the image of the face, advertising banners relating to products of potential interest to us appear on the monitor (with a large margin of error according to our tests) and, after a few seconds, a button is shown on the which one to click to read a brief account of the profile evinced by our face.
The purpose of ADface
It is a tool created to make consumers more aware of the penetration of AI that now coincide or overlap with many situations of our daily life. Swiss Digital Initiative, contacted by us to better understand what the purpose of this tool is, underlines that: “The web-based tool ADface uses artificial intelligence to analyze a person’s face and create a user profile to produce targeted advertisements that could fit to the user profile. A simple tool to show that AI is already deeply ingrained and affects everyday life. Art and design can be a precious ally to raise awareness and stimulate critical thinking on the social implications of new technologies. This project serves as a tool to raise awareness of artificial intelligence in everyday life. ADface simply shows a real use case of AI in action and brings ethical issues to the fore, gets people to think and hopefully delve into the matter. ”
E-commerce, goal: conquer generation Z
by Antonio Calitri
02 Maggio 2022
That the AIs are able to mix with our daily life is evident, being aware of it is less so. “Becoming aware of the use of facial recognition and targeted advertising is only a first step. To deepen the understanding of digital technologies, promote trust and responsibility, the Swiss Digital initiative sees in ADface a starting point for a broader discussion on the interaction between digital technologies and society ”adds Swiss Digital Initiative.
ADface is not an act of distrust
This tool was not designed to induce distrust or fear. He wants to contribute so that everyone can take steps with AI and the functions they perform: “We believe in the potential of digital technologies for society but we ask that organizations think a lot about the consequences of certain technologies, the associated ethical issues and that they use technologies in responsibly and we aim to raise the awareness of users and consumers so that they are able to address these questions directly and make informed decisions in the digital sphere “, explains Swiss Digital Initiative which goes one step further, hoping for an ethical behavior of the organizations that use of AI: “On our project website we outline some first simple steps for users but also for organizations that offer digital services that they can take to work towards a more responsible and ethical digital world. For users, it’s about becoming curious, finding help and, through education, gaining power. As for organizations, they must facilitate the awareness of their users by being transparent about which services and technologies they use, how they use them and for what purposes “.
How to get on the first page of Google, with the help of the right web agency
03 Maggio 2022
The ethical question
Today shopping coincides less and less with going to shops and more and more with connecting with websites. There are several metamorphoses in this attitude, the most important being the loss of identity: we even lose the physical role of buyer. We are no longer those who walk into a shop and ask shop assistants to try on different clothes before buying one (or, perhaps, not even that), just as we don’t even impersonate the polite and determined customer who enters a shop, asks for a product, pays him, greets him and goes out. We expose ourselves, online, to become one of the many customers of which the seller has no semblance other than a name, a surname, a physical address, an IP address and a credit card number. No more people who enter a store but incorporeal consumers who come to a virtual space, click on one or more products and then pay.
Online advertising
Real time bidding: so on the Internet they spy on us billions of times a day
by Antonio Dini
18 Maggio 2022
The ethical question – which could take hundreds of pages to describe – can be compressed (but not extinguished) in a question: how legitimate is it that our “dematerialization” of hyper-connected individuals authorizes a technology to derive from ourselves information to which it does not have direct access? In other words: if online sales do not provide (nor do they expect) that our face is visible, why should it become a profiling tool?
Ethics should not be confused with what appears to be a predictable and acceptable offshoot of the web: our social profiles replace us. Posts, comments, shares and “likes” are our thoughts and our Weltanschauung, that is the way we look at the world. The reviews we leave online are our critical capacity. All this is made possible by our (aware or not) having agreed to be online and to give our information for advertising purposes. It should be understood how much the information deducible from our face are cues for acceptable profiling, without limiting ourselves to accepting this condition as a normal consequence, at least not before we have asked ourselves the appropriate questions and formulated coherent answers, knowing that our identity gives substance to the opinions that we have of ourselves. A complicated, multi-faceted theme that does not deserve to be taken lightly or dismissed with carelessness.
Brian Eno: Google and Amazon are symbols of control capitalism
by Bruno Ruffilli
06 Maggio 2022
