AI can better identify your personality based on selfies: Russia

Moscow: Russian researchers have revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) is able to infer people's personality from 'selfie' photographs better than human raters do. The study revealed that personality predictions based on female faces appeared to be more reliable than those for male faces. The technology can be used to find the 'best matches' in customer service, dating or online tutoring, the researchers from HSE University and Open University in Russia, said. Studies asking human raters to make personality judgments based on photographs have produced inconsistent results, suggesting that our judgments are too unreliable to be of any practical importance. According to the study, there are strong theoretical and evolutionary arguments to suggest that some information about personality characteristics, particularly, those essential for social communication, might be conveyed by the human face. After all, face and behaviour are both shaped by genes and hormones, and social experiences resulting from one's appearance may affect one's personality development. However, the recent evidence from neuroscience suggests that instead of looking at specific facial features, the human brain processes images of faces in a holistic manner. (IANS)