The global impacts of facial recognition technologies will be at the heart of CRIA – University of Minho / IN2PAST researcher Helena Machado’s research over the next five years. Her new project, ‘Facial Recognition Technologies. Etho-Assemblages and Alternative Futures (fAIces)’ was just awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) worth 2.46 million euros.

ERC grants are among the most competitive and prestigious in Europe, and are scarce in Portugal and in the social sciences. This is Helena Machado’s second ERC grant, and she is now an international reference in sociology.

Project fAIces aims to comprehensively analyse the political, ethical and social impacts that facial recognition technologies have on citizenship and privacy. These technologies are commonly used for identification and tracking, storing billions of faces and feeding neural networks that are crucial to the development of artificial intelligence.

‘We will understand how the use of these technologies can accentuate discrimination and social inequality, for example, by exploring the perspectives of diverse groups that have never been studied together, including scientists, companies, activists and artists, acting on a global level. We will also study the implications for black communities in countries such as the USA, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, the UK and Spain,’ emphasises Helena Machado. The project will also adopt an innovative methodology to formulate a new social theory about the face. Moreover, it aims to promote ethical debates and engage society, stimulating the imagination for alternative futures in the use of these technologies.

Keep on reading on CRIA’s website.