经济学人:人脸识别让你无处可藏(1)

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Facial recognition is not just another technology. It will change society. 脸部识别不但但是又一项技术。它将改变社会。

THE human face is a remarkable¹ piece of work. 人脸是一件非同凡响的作品。

The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is crucial to the formation of complex societies. 令人惊异的脸部特征多样化帮助人们相互辨认，并且对复杂社会的形成非常关键。

So is the face's ability to send emotional signals, whether through an involuntary blush or the artifice² of a false smile. 人脸传达表情符号的能力——无论是通过不自觉的脸红，还是通过做作的假笑——也是如此。

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, hostility³, trust and deceit. 人们把醒着的时间——无论是在办公室、法庭，还是在酒吧和卧室——大都用在阅读脸上的吸引、敌视、信任和欺骗的符号上面。

They also spend plenty of time trying to dissimulate⁴. 同时，还拿出大把的时间试图掩饰。

Technology is rapidly catching⁵ up with the human ability to read faces. 技术正在迅速地赶上人类读脸的能力。

In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers' attendance; in Britain, by retailers⁶ to spot past shoplifters. 在美国，脸部识别被教堂用来记录信徒的礼拜。在英国，它被零售商用来识别以前的商店扒手。

This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. 今年，威尔士警方使用这种技术在一场球赛外逮捕了一名疑犯。

In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. 在中国，它验证出租车司机的身份，允许游客进入景点，让人们用微笑付款购物。

Apple's new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen. 苹果公司的新iPhone手机有望用它来解锁屏幕。

Set against human skills, such applications might seem incremental⁷. 较之人类技能，这类应用或许看上去是多此一举。

Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode them. 有些突破，如飞行和互联网，明显地改变了人类的能力；脸部识别不过是对它们进行编码而已。

Although faces are peculiar⁸ to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, intrude⁹ on something that is private. 尽管脸之与是独有的，但是，它们也是公共的。因此，乍一看，技术没有侵犯私有之物。

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. 然而，便宜地、快速地、大量地记录、储存和分析人脸影像的能力预示着，总有一天会给隐私、公平和信任等观念带来根本性的变革。

 

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