Like any new tool, if it gets into the wrong hands, it can be used for ill purposes,” said Nick Rule, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, who has published research on the science of gaydar.
That means building this kind of software and publicizing it is itself controversial given concerns that it could encourage harmful applications.īut the authors argued that the technology already exists, and its capabilities are important to expose so that governments and companies can proactively consider privacy risks and the need for safeguards and regulations. More frighteningly, governments that continue to prosecute LGBT people could hypothetically use the technology to out and target populations.
It’s easy to imagine spouses using the technology on partners they suspect are closeted, or teenagers using the algorithm on themselves or their peers. With billions of facial images of people stored on social media sites and in government databases, the researchers suggested that public data could be used to detect people’s sexual orientation without their consent. While the findings have clear limits when it comes to gender and sexuality – people of color were not included in the study, and there was no consideration of transgender or bisexual people – the implications for artificial intelligence (AI) are vast and alarming. The machine’s lower success rate for women also could support the notion that female sexual orientation is more fluid. The paper suggested that the findings provide “strong support” for the theory that sexual orientation stems from exposure to certain hormones before birth, meaning people are born gay and being queer is not a choice. Broadly, that means “faces contain much more information about sexual orientation than can be perceived and interpreted by the human brain”, the authors wrote. When the software reviewed five images per person, it was even more successful – 91% of the time with men and 83% with women. Human judges performed much worse than the algorithm, accurately identifying orientation only 61% of the time for men and 54% for women. The data also identified certain trends, including that gay men had narrower jaws, longer noses and larger foreheads than straight men, and that gay women had larger jaws and smaller foreheads compared to straight women. The research found that gay men and women tended to have “gender-atypical” features, expressions and “grooming styles”, essentially meaning gay men appeared more feminine and vice versa. The researchers, Michal Kosinski and Yilun Wang, extracted features from the images using “deep neural networks”, meaning a sophisticated mathematical system that learns to analyze visuals based on a large dataset. I'm sure you will use your love for your son to give him what he needs at this critical time in his life.The machine intelligence tested in the research, which was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and first reported in the Economist, was based on a sample of more than 35,000 facial images that men and women publicly posted on a US dating website. Your son has now experienced your reactions to his telling you that he thinks he is gay and he is probably both relieved and more frightened than ever. You might wish to call PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) at 21 or visit their web site, to find one of a chapter near you.
Your son may receive some beneficial, free counseling at the Trevor Hotline (80), which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning youth under the age of 25.
It's important that you not present this as sending him to a therapist so he can "get cured." You also need professional help so you can assist your son. Help him find a therapist who has a background in helping adolescents sort out and deal with their sexual orientation. He may even fear being rejected and condemned by his family and friends. He is very vulnerable right now and I'm sure that he is scared, given the considerable prejudice against homosexuals in our culture. He is looking to you for your help and support and you need to make that your main focus. It took tremendous courage for him to reveal this to you. Despite your understandable confusion and fear over this revelation, you must be careful to restrain yourself from blaming and shaming your son for believing that he might be gay.