Machine learning hucksters invent an AI racist uncle that predicts your personality from your facial bone structure

Phrenology (the fake science of predicting personality from the shape of your cranial bones) is like Freddy Kruger, an unkillable demon who rises from the grave every time some desperate huckster decides they need to make a few extra bucks.

The latest example? "Faception," a machine learning company in Tel Aviv, Israel, whose "proprietary computer vision and machine learning technology" profiles people, "revealing their personality based only on their facial image."

They claim this ML system can guess whether you are a "Extrovert, a person with High IQ, Professional Poker Player or a threats (sic)."

They pitch this as a technology for use in "smart cities" where the "dangerous world" (including "terrorists and other criminals") can be identified even if they are "unknown to the authorities" by a machine learning oracle that will convict you of being a threat based solely on an image of your face.

What if it was possible to know whether an anonymous individual is a potential terrorist, an aggressive person, or a potential criminal? Better yet, what if that information could be obtained and used in real-time, when it matters the most?"

Faception offers a breakthrough computer-vision and machine learning technology that goes beyond Biometrics. Our solution analyzes a person's facial image and automatically reveals his personality, enabling security companies/agencies to more efficiently detect, focus and apprehend potential terrorists or criminals before they have the opportunity to do harm."

Our solution is easy to deploy with minimum integration work and can installed on the client hardware, the system can integrate with an existing face recognition platform and support operational hierarchy and reporting modules.

(via @BenSnyder)