A global team of scientists have discovered AI can tell an individual’s personality traits by analysing their eye movements.
The scientists used machine learning to discover a link between eye movements and the personality of a person earlier this year.
Armed with this information, the researchers deployed AI to analyse the eye movements of 42 students. The results were announced last week.
In psychology, there are five basic personality traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism.
The scientists discovered their AI was able to find a correlation between the eyes of the students and four of the five personality traits. Openness was the only trait it struggled to link with eye movements.
By enabling a greater understanding of the individual, the researchers hope their AI could be used to improve the personalisation of services.
Tobias Loetscher, lead researcher of the project, explains:
“Today’s robots and computers are not socially-aware, so they cannot adapt to non-verbal cues.
This research provides opportunities to develop robots and computers so that they can become more natural and better at interpreting human social signals.”
Naturally, there will also be some concerns about the use of such technology. For example, it could be abused to determine whether a person is susceptible to manipulation.
Advertisers are another sector of society that would love to get their hands on such technology in order to further target campaigns.
The global team of scientists included researchers from the University of Stuttgart, University of South Australia, Flinders University, and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.
Their work once again highlights the possibilities of AI technology in society, but also the potential for abuse.
A full copy of the research can be found here.
What are your thoughts on the use of AI to determine personality traits? Let us know in the comments.
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