Company says facial features reveal terrorists and pedophiles 80% of the time

boing
21

Which bit?

22

Bayes’s Theorem.

If 1 person in 1000 is a terrorist and 1000 people are tested with this thing, how many false positives will there be?

Approximately 200.

How many terrorists will be detected?

Answer: There is only an 80% chance of detecting the terrorist.

So in terms of people subjected to further testing, the effective false positive rate is not 20%. It is 25000%.

Thus, even if the test worked, it would still be completely useless.

16 Likes
23

Why is this company even trying to sell its services to catch terrorists? They’d make a lot more money, faster, by entering professional poker tournaments. If they really want to do a civic duty, retire on that fat poker money (as proof that it works) and offer the technology to governments for free.

4 Likes
24

I’d want to run some test samples first before I was willing to buy into it.

 
John_Ashcroft.jpg442×552 223 KB

 
ridge_tom.jpg819×1024 185 KB
20 Likes
25

Well this help cut down on the long TSA lines? Cause I can see them buying into this steaming pile.

3 Likes
26

I assume it will make them longer.

7 Likes
27

Contrary to your contrarianism, no one ever meets an aggregate person and even the gold-standard scientific analysis of biometrics fail because those features just aren’t very predictive. (i.e. determining that some measurement is statistically significant is showing something more like detectability, not that the effect is large.)

3 Likes
28

It’s the collars that give 'em away every time…

11 Likes
29

So to be clear if given one million images it will falsely identify 200,000 as terrorists and pedophiles.

Good job there!

3 Likes
30

I suspect your comment is tongue in cheek, but note that abuse rates are the same in protestant churches as well.

4 Likes
31

It’s contrarians all the way down.

6 Likes
32

You’re assuming there is not interference in natural development. I have a recessive jawline but if this was corrected I would have a massive lantern jaw. I have no idea where my testosterone production lies, but either way, it could be misleading.

3 Likes
33

I thought everyone knows it’s the paedosmile?

3 Likes
34

molestache

4 Likes
35

Don’t they wear collars as well?

1 Like
36

I doubt very much I can link to the Greatest Webpage in the Universe Ever from work, but I can see that you’ve got the idea.

1 Like
37

Some times. Some just wear T-Shirt.

38

If you misread this, “falsely identify 200,000 terrorists as pedophiles” the whole thing just seems bizarre.

Come on, it’s 2016, who gets cosmetic alterations to their naturally occurring jaw structure?

5 Likes
39

I believe that there is some research that shows this may be incorrect. High testosterone may also be associated with enhanced cooperative behaviour.
Plus of course and taking the words at face level, a “statistically elevated level” may mean nothing at all for an individual. If population A has an average IQ of 100, and population B of 101, and the difference is significant at, say, the 2 sigma level - the difference would be significant statistically but of no importance whatsoever.

1 Like
40

Company says facial features reveal terrorists and pedophiles 80% of the time

13 Likes