Google's Museum App Finds Your Fine Art Doppelganger (engadget.com)

The latest update to the Google Arts & Culture app now lets you take a selfie, and using image recognition, finds someone in its vast art collection that most resembles you. It will then present you and your fine art twin side-by-side, along with a percentage match, and let you share the results on social media. Engadget reports: The app, which appears to be unfortunately geo-restricted to the United States, is like an automated version of an article that circulated recently showing folks standing in front of portraits at museums. In many cases, the old-timey people in the paintings resemble them uncannily, but, other than in rare cases, that's not the case at all with Google's app. Google matched me with someone who doesn't look like me in the slightest, a certain Sir Peter Francois Bourgeois, based on a painting hanging in Dulwich Picture Gallery. Taking a buzz around the internet, other folks were satisfied with their matches, some took them as a personal insult, and many were just plain baffled, in that order.

Comments

Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[93 Escort Wagon]

There's no way I most resemble Edvard Munch's The Scream .

Re:Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just another way for Google to harvest data on people. Anyone who actually sends their picture to Google (or Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) is an idiot.

Re: Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

does anyone else miss the golden girls posts, or the moo posts. ore eve (shudders) goatse?

Re:Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[PPH]

You think that's bad? Google sent me back a picture of Muhammad.

Re: Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no god. Mohammed was a con man who got more tourist revenue for Mecca by tricking people into visiting the Kaaba, already the main revenue source for Mecca during his life. Thatâ(TM)s why the pilgrimage to Mecca is so important even today: itâ(TM)s all about the tourism revenue for Mecca (now owned by the house of Saud).

Re: Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you stupid sand n1gger and fuck your sand n1gger sect of shitty raping paedophiles

Re: Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

I still miss https://slashdot.org/~OOG_THE_... who I haven't seen in a decade or more.

Re:Thanks, Google - but I call shenanigans

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol - I got a cartoon of Muhammad!

Bit by bit

[BlacKSacrificE]

The cynic in me see's this as just another ploy by Google to give up biometric data. And people will happily feed the machine without so much as a second thought because they want to see which artwork they look like? Is that really worth the cost?

Re:Bit by bit

[iMadeGhostzilla]

Good point. I who am lately customarily suspicious of Google was ready to upload my photo, had I found a link. Won't look any further. Feels like Google has burned a lot of its good karma over the last few years.

Re: Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

You can lie to other people. It's up to them to ignore you. But lying to yourself? It's easy to do.

There is no god.

Re:Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

I immediately thought the same thing.

Re:Bit by bit

[AHuxley]

Biometric data to connect to encrypted OS, browsers that only let in approved brand ads.
Value added as the correct user is exposed to the correct ads at the OS, browser level. New OS and browser lock to stop third party ad blockers :)

Re:Bit by bit

[gl4ss]

..it's a ployt for the team scanning the fine arts to justify their funding.

I mean come on, the whole concept is as simple as it gets - run facial recognition on the database and return the best match.

it might serve some purpose for working as a warning for why maybe you shouldn't rely on facial recognition... because, come on, people aren't as unique as they seem once you scale things up.

Re: Bit by bit

[pslytely psycho]

"Why do people reject Islam and Allah? "

Easy.
BACON!!!!

Re: Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

Your friend is imaginary, much like the Christian and Jewish gods. There is no God other than Allah, who is very real. Islam is the truth, no matter how much you try to deny it with your science.

How about you scientifically prove He exists with our science, and you'll probably be hailed as a prophet or somesuch.

Re:Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late. They already have it.

Re:Bit by bit

[Baron_Yam]

>people aren't as unique as they seem once you scale things up

There are a LOT of combinations of colour, size, relative feature positions, and shapes. Even with 7.5 billion of us, other than identical twins who make an effort to look the same there are no real duplicates if you look closely.

On the other hand, if you relax a bit there are tons and tons of fairly similar people... and to today's facial recognition systems they may as well be the same person.

Re:Bit by bit

[swillden]

The cynic in me see's this as just another ploy by Google to give up biometric data.

The app tells you "Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches".

Re: Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no God other than Allah, who is very real.

Prove it.

Re:Bit by bit

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

And Google told you its corporate motto was "Don't be evil." I bet you believed it'd stand by that too.

Re: Bit by bit

[amicusNYCL]

Why do people reject Islam and Allah?

In part, because of people like you.

Re:Bit by bit

[Anonymous Coward]

Not 'people' - just the shallow, vapid, and uninformed. You know: progressives.

Re:Bit by bit

[ndykman]

Nope, you got it exactly right. A large database of faces tied to identifiable information has real value, This is a way to help Google catch up with LinkedIn and Facebook (who, with Instagram is way in the lead) in terms of data.

Orwell got it wrong, we didn't need the government to oppressively remove our privacy, we gave it up in return for Pavlovian instant gratification. The like button was ingenious, it truly was.

Re:Homosexuality is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Sooo gay. Coping much?

Me, I guess.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, this is who Google thinks I most resemble. Personally when I look in the mirror, I don't see the likeness.

Re:Me, I guess.

[PPH]

I've given up looking in mirrors.

Prism now wants your pic

[AHuxley]

Strange how much US social media and web 2.0 now wants your pic?
Who wants to give their pic to the companies that helped the security services?
PRISM (surveillance program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Facebook's New Captcha Test: 'Upload A Clear Photo of Your Face'
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
Facebook Will Use Facial Recognition To Tell You When People Upload Your Picture
https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
Now its all about "art".... to get your selfie.

Re:Prism now wants your pic

[CODiNE]

Facebook emails me a reminder to do this about once a month. They really, REALLY want to know.

Re:Prism now wants your pic

[Anonymous Coward]

Linkedin keeps pestering me about this, even if I told them that I did not want a picture in a database.

Re:Prism now wants your pic

[swillden]

Strange how much US social media and web 2.0 now wants your pic?

The app says "Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches".

Of course, if you then share the result on Facebook, Facebook will have (yet another) photo of you.

Who wants to give their pic to the companies that helped the security services? PRISM (surveillance program)

It appears that the only data the NSA was getting from Google was from tapping fiber optic lines between Google data centers. There's no evidence that Google ever cooperated -- beyond complying with legal orders -- and Google has explicitly denied cooperating. Oh, and after the Snowden stuff came out, Google accelerated a project to encrypt all internal communications.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be vigilant and careful with what information you give to whom, or that you should just blindly trust anyone -- including Google -- but a lot of the paranoia that floats around is unjustified and serves mostly to distract from the things you really do need to be careful about.

Re:Prism now wants your pic

[Anonymous Coward]

NSL's say they've bent over and given everything they have to the NSA and you can't know about. No point in giving them more.

Re:Prism now wants your pic

[AHuxley]

Re ' but a lot of the paranoia that floats around is"
PRISM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... has what "floats" around....
Thats US telco and US big brand access to the security services for some time.
That the US big brands allowed, helped with, did not have the skills to detect and did not mention, did not try better encryption...
While their big brand data just flowed out.

Building a face database

[QuietLagoon]

A nice way to get people to submit a good image of their face so that google can build a database of faces and try to catch up to facebook in this area.

Re:Building a face database

[Anonymous Coward]

A nice way to get people to submit a good image of their face so that google can build a database of faces and try to catch up to facebook in this area.

If they wanted to build a database of selfies, a better way would be to NOT include the text "Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches". But even if you think they're blatantly lying when they say that (which is doubtful, since they're usually not shy about saying when they'll keep and use your data), I'm not sure what it accomplishes. They have all the selfies from Google+ users (go ahead and make a joke, but plenty of people used it...just not often). Android also has nearly a 90% market share of all cell phones, and the vast majority of users most likely leave the default setting to backup the photos to their google account (where the terms of service WILL allow Google to use the photos for just about anything). The app doesn't appear to be available for iOS, so it doesn't help them in any way with that other 10% of the market.

So given all of that, I'm not sure what more this app would give them. Perhaps it just might be time to loosen the tin foil hat a little bit.

Re:Building a face database

[QuietLagoon]

... Perhaps it just might be time to loosen the tin foil hat a little bit....

Given google's history, being prudent does not mean one is wearing a tin foil hat.

... Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches...

Once google has processed the photo, the photo is no longer needed, so why store it? Google may not use this data, but who else, besides google will have access to this data? What third parties? Googles overall privacy policy is wide open to google sharing data with third parties.

...They have all the selfies from Google+ users (go ahead and make a joke...

No joking, just the reality that google (and, by reference, google+) has a long, long way to go in order to catch up to facebook's facial database.

... I'm not sure what more this app would give them....

Exactly. Google is getting something out of this app. I wonder what it is?

Re:Building a face database

[swillden]

A nice way to get people to submit a good image of their face so that google can build a database of faces and try to catch up to facebook in this area.

The app says "Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches".

Re:Building a face database

[Anonymous Coward]

...and?

How would anybody know if that totally-not-legally-binding "promise" was broken and what sort of punishment would they get for breaking it besides a slap on the wrist and a completely apathetic non-reaction from the media?

Fewer and fewer people trust Google because they (and their devoted employees, in aggregate) are a bunch of creeps. Creepers gonna creep, amirite?

Re:Convert to Islam

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, you think I'm ugly?

Re:Homosexuality is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no Allah, there is no God, never has been. Gotta rip that band aid off. Unfortunately for you, that fact undermines your entire belief system. The only person you're lying to is yourself.

Yes worth it

[SuperKendall]

In my own case, closest was a 50% match that did not look that much like me. But it was a cool idea so I was happy to give up my image in perpetuity for the effort.

Although that's meant as a kind of funny response, I actually don't mind my image being used to train facial recognition AI engines. It's just a tool, that can be used for good or ill - but tools are useful.

I laughed so hard that I couldn't breathe.

[jmhysong]

I just saw this tweet about that app tonight. Hilarious! (NSFW) https://twitter.com/RoryAlbane...

Re:I laughed so hard that I couldn't breathe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you give a hint as to what it is before we risk setting of office alarm bells?

Re:I laughed so hard that I couldn't breathe.

[Anonymous Coward]

First it was the Gorillas, now we face the computer vision extinction of goats.

How long until machine vision will not be able to recognize any animals ?

Additional functionality

[Anonymous Coward]

Will tell you whether your face is a hot dog or not.

Biometrics collection tactic

[Anonymous Coward]

That's just great..."And we will just leave those selfies in this folder and I hope whichever Three Letter stops by to look doesn't grab a copy." It was already creepy enough that they tried to put facial recognition in Google glasses. I know it's asking a lot, but don't be an idiot.

Origin of the world

[DrYak]

Wait until somebody gets matched to L'Origine du Monde (by Gustave Courbet)

Gorilla?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does Google say I look like a Gorilla?

I like Alyssa Milano's reaction on Twitter

[Anonymous Coward]

https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/952726154502287360