This Magic Mirror Measures Your Personality Traits, Emotional Stability and Attractiveness

“Enter a sci-fi beauty salon and let an AI scan your biometric data and reveal a mathematically ‘perfect’ version of your own face”

In a timely discussion centred on Artificial Intelligence and ethics, the artist behind the Biometric Mirror, Lucy McRae, reflects on the invisible prevalence of AI in our everyday lives— alongside Science Gallery Melbourne's Dr Niels Wouters and Nxt Museum’s Creative Director Natasha Greenhalgh.

Audiences posing for the Biometric Mirror have their reflection scanned by AI. This captures demographic information including; your age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as psychometric data such as; your degree of attractiveness, responsibility, and emotional stability. The date used by the Biometric Mirror is based on crowdsourced feedback on people’s facial appearance. The mirror measures your face against this data base and eventually reflects the mathematically ‘perfect’ version of your own face back at you.

A confronting and immersive installation, Biometric Mirror is particularly poignant within a cultural landscape of growing pressure to look perfect and have an ideal life. Likewise, the assumptions made by AI technology can be biased and flawed. Do you trust an algorithm to make judgements about your appearance?

This 60-minute panel discussion aims to contribute to the urgent discussion around the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence and the cultural implications of emerging technologies.