Health and Fitness Health and Fitness

Machine learning is bringing back an infamous pseudoscience used to fuel racism


Published on 2025-01-24 13:22:16 - MSN
  Print publication without navigation

  • Swiss poet and preacher Johann Kaspar Lavater brought back an ancient "science." Physiognomy, the idea of judging someone's personality based on their face, was not a new idea. It had been discussed by some ancient philosophers but fell into disrepute because,

The article from MSN discusses how machine learning is inadvertently reviving phrenology, a discredited 19th-century pseudoscience that claimed to determine personality traits and intelligence based on skull measurements, often used to justify racism. Modern AI systems, particularly those used in facial recognition and other biometric technologies, are now being criticized for similar biases. These systems, trained on datasets that might reflect societal biases, can perpetuate racial and other forms of discrimination by making flawed assumptions about individuals based on their physical features. The piece highlights concerns from experts about how these technologies could reinforce and spread racist ideologies under the guise of scientific advancement, pointing out the ethical implications and the need for more diverse and carefully curated training data to mitigate such biases.

Read the Full MSN Article at:
[ https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning-is-bringing-back-an-infamous-pseudoscience-used-to-fuel-racism/ar-AA1xOd4D ]