Well, this is incredible and scary both at the same time. Forget about "facial" recognition; Facebook's newest technology is way good at identifying you in photos even without the need to see your face.
The New Scientist is reporting about the Facebook's new "experimental" facial recognition algorithm which is so powerful that it can identify you in photos even when your faces are hidden.
Instead, the Facebook's extremely accurate facial recognition algorithm uses other unique characteristics — such as your hairstyle, your body shape, your body language, your clothing and how you carry yourself — to identify that it's you.
Facebook's New Facial Recognition Technology - 83% Accurate
Facebook's artificial intelligence lab is working on this technology and, according to the head of artificial intelligence at Facebook Yann Lecun, the experimental algorithm is currently able to identify individuals with 83% accuracy, even if the faces in the photos are obscured.
"There are a lot of cues we use. People have characteristic aspects, even if you look at them from the back," Lecun said while taking to the New Scientist. Like, "for example, you can recognize Mark Zuckerberg very easily because he always wears a gray T-shirt."
No doubt, this is beneficial to Facebook, who wants to incorporate this algorithm into its recently-launched Moments app that helps create collections of photos by scanning your camera roll with facial recognition.
Even though the feature is very impressive, it does not mean every one of us are comfortable with the idea of being so accurately scanned, identified, and recognized by any tech company.
However, LeCun said the technology could actually be good for privacy. Like, it might alert users if their photo surfaces online, even if their face is not clear or they are facing away from the camera.