AI Gender Recognition.

[Christina152]

Does anyone else amuse themselves by posting unfiltered selfies onto the various AI gender recognition sites?

I'm 78 and strictly covert, not transitioning. I have an almost daily ritual now, after I have applied some subtle foundation, blush and tinted lip gloss, of interrogating these apps for my gender. The results are very variable, day-to-day and by app, depending on lighting, facial expression, hair style and glasses on or off.

FaceApp is very unpredictable but I score fem about 50% of the time. Nyckel is more demanding, only about 20% fem and usually without wearing glasses. PicPurify is the most euphoric test, close to 100% female every time. Toolpie is very variable, averaging fem less than 50% of the time but always very generous on age estimation, often in the 50s or 60s! Betaface is very demanding, male 95% of the time although generous with age estimation.
 
This all good fun but hardly inspires confidence in the reliability of AI!

[Lori Dee]

Have you ever noticed that government-issued ID photos, like driver's licenses and passports, rarely produce a good photo? There is a reason for this.

I discussed this during a session with my psychologist. She said it is because what a camera sees is different than what the brain sees. The camera (and AI) picks up subtle details that the human brain ignores. The human brain is very good at recognizing human faces, then looks for clues about gender, etc., to decide what satisfies its curiosity. The camera and computer models look at everything.

So an AI app (FaceApp) will decide one way, but if you manually tell it to swap gender, then apply filters, it gets a result that matches what you see, or even better. I mostly used this technique to improve my makeup skills. By applying various makeup filters, I could see what the app changed, then I would try to mimic the result when I applied my makeup. It was a great learning tool.

[Tills]

With my hormone regime I had to update my iPhone Face ID after a while as the changes knocked out the recognition. And even then, if I put on the slightest amount of makeup it often still fails to recognise me.

A little while back I decided to go stealth to a family funeral because I just didn't want to distract or be a topic of conversation. Through gritted teeth I donned a suit, tied my hair back etc. I thought I'd made quite a good job of it.

Anyway, at the event my Ex was overheard saying to a friend, 'Gosh they are so femme-looking these days.'

Made me smile. Truth will out in the real world, even if not in AI.

xx

[Devlyn]

No way, no how, would I willingly give my information to those services. Faceapp in particular has a grim history of misusing people's personal information. Be careful.

Hugs, Devlyn

[ChrissyRyan]

No way, no how, would I willingly give my information to those services. Faceapp in particular has a grim history of misusing people's personal information. Be careful.

Hugs, Devlyn

Gosh you have to give info to sites like FaceApp now simply to get a filtered photo?  I can see that they would be able to keep the original face, but why would they need to do so?  Seems like it could be shredded upon completion of the filtering and rendering session.

Insofar as other identifying info they could or could not keep it.  Likely it is something they can sell or barter for services.