Here’s what that AI face-categorizer did with 12 famous author photos.
By now, you’ve probably seen the barrage of ImageNet Roulette photos on your Twitter feed. They’re basically just photos of people’s faces surrounded by a green box and a label, based on the site’s guess of what social role you fulfill. (It’s sort of like that app that matched your face to a museum portrait.) But why would you upload your personal photos to this semi-sketchy-looking site? Because according to its about page, ImageNet Roulette is “designed to help us see into the ways that humans are classified in machine learning systems.” And mostly just because it’s fun. (In case you were wondering, I got enchantress, witch.)
Here’s how ImageNet Roulette classified these famous writers:
Ernest Hemingway
The homeless man and the sea.
Stephen King
To clarify: we don’t think nerd or dweeb are bad things.
Truman Capote
I am premature baby.
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the gin herself.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Apparently ImageNet Roulette hadn’t heard that F. Scott dubbed her the “first American flapper.”
Shirley Jackson
Just because she wrote some of the most chilling stories of all time, it doesn’t mean she didn’t also play the horn, okay?
Ralph Ellison
ImageNet Roulette sees you, Ralph Ellison.
Shel Silverstein
Not all bald people.
Maya Angelou
Something something why the caged bird sings.
Donna Tartt
Because of course she is! Look at that stance! That stare!
Joan Didion
“An actress who specializes in tragic roles.”
And last but certainly not least:
Charles Dickens
No comment.
