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人臉識別

無處躲藏

人臉識別不只是另一種技術。它將改變社會

Facial recognitionNowhere to hide

Facial recognition is not just another technology. It will change society

人類的臉是一件傑作。面部特徵之紛繁各異令人驚嘆，它讓人們能相互辨認，也是形成複雜社會群體的關鍵。人臉傳遞情感信號的功能也同樣重要，無論是通過下意識的臉紅還是有技巧的假笑。人們在清醒時花費大量時光研讀一張張面孔——在辦公室，在法庭，在酒吧，在卧室，尋找著興趣、敵意、信任和欺騙的跡象。他們也花大把的時間試圖掩飾自己的神色。

THE human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is crucial to the formation of complex societies. So is the face』s ability to send emotional signals, whether through an involuntary blush or the artifice of a false smile. People spend much of their waking lives, in the office and the courtroom as well as the bar and the bedroom, reading faces, for signs of attraction, hostility, trust and deceit. They also spend plenty of time trying to dissimulate.

科技正迅速趕上人類研讀臉孔的能力。在美國，教堂使用人臉識別來追蹤教徒做禮拜的出席情況；在英國，零售商用它來辨認有扒竊前科的顧客。今年，威爾士警方利用人臉識別在足球場外逮捕了一名嫌疑犯。在中國，人臉識別被用於驗證網約車司機的身份、讓遊客刷臉進景點、讓顧客微微一笑就能刷臉買單。蘋果的新款iPhone預計將用這一技術來解鎖屏幕。

Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers』 attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple』s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen.

與人類的技能相比，這樣的應用看似只是錦上添花。飛行或互聯網這樣的重大突破明顯改變了人類的能力，而人臉識別似乎只是對面孔進行編碼。儘管人的面孔為個人獨有，但也是公開的，因此乍看起來，技術並沒有侵犯隱私之嫌。但是，低成本、快速、大量地記錄、存儲和分析人臉圖像的能力終有一天會使隱私、公平和信任等觀念發生根本性的改變。

Set against human skills, such applications might seem incremental. Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode them. Although faces are peculiar to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, intrude on something that is private. And yet the ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to notions of privacy, fairness and trust.

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