人脸识别时代的来临.docVIP

人脸识别时代的来临 　　在最新的?O果手机发布会上，最大的亮点也是被人吐槽最多的恐怕要算它的人脸识别功能了。除了指纹之外，面部特征无疑也是区分个体差异的最有效方式。人脸识别技术在不远未来的广泛应用是可预见的，但其潜在的安全隐患也值得人们关注。 　　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 artifice1 o f 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 dissimulate2. 　　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. In 2017， Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing3 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. 　　Set against human skills， such applications might seem incremental4. 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. 　　The final frontier 　　Start with privacy. One big difference between faces and other biometric5 data， such as fingerprints， is that they work at a distance. Anyone with a phone can take a picture for facial-recognition programs to use. FindFace， an app in Russia， compares snaps of strang