“Apple has been accused of racism, amid reports that the Face ID authentication technology on its new iPhone X is failing to distinguish between Chinese users,” Sophie Curtis reports for The Mirror. “A man from Shanghai bought his wife the new gadget soon after it was released last month, but she was shocked to discover it could be unlocked by her teenage son.”
“The man, identified only by his surname Liu, phoned Apple’s customer service hotline to report the problem,” Curtis reports. “He was told it was an isolated case and was due to the fact his wife and son look very similar. However, Apple has reportedly launched an investigation into the Liu family’s claims. This is not the first reported incident of Chinese users being able to unlock each other’s iPhone Xs. Last week, AsiaOne reported that a woman from Nanjing discovered her colleague was able to unlock her phone using Face ID.”
“Apple claims the probability that a random person in the population could look at your iPhone X and unlock it using Face ID is approximately one in a million. However, there are some caveats. If you have a twin or a sibling who looks very similar to you, the probability of a false match is higher,” Curtis reports. “It is also higher for children under the age of 13, because their distinct facial features may not have fully developed, according to Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The data are the data and the quest to obliterate all meaning of the word “racism” via wild misapplication continues with abandon.
Information about how Apple’s advanced Face ID hardware and software works can be found here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
I’m gracist towards people not called Grace.
This is just too funny….
It’s funny until you realize that failure is Tim Cook’s ongoing legacy at Apple.
Tim Cook, Steve’s worst mistake.
The iPhone 8 Plus doesn’t have this problem.
… that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have a problem with the fingerprints of Chinese since they all look alike.
Here we have empirical proof via 3D face scans that nearly all Chinese rook arike…
Jeez dude, “rook arike” is Japanese.
I know, I just couldn’t resist. Mandarin Chinese has both L & R sounds, and there’s typically no difficulty differentiating them for them.
Give Apple time, Tim Cook can f*ck anything up given enough time.
The only mention of racism I could find was by Sophie Curtis, who wrote the article. Click-bait?
It’s a troll post looking to troll conservatives.who can’t help but click on ANYTHING that has the word racism in the headline. The same way we used to troll with “gay marriage”.:)
There’s a certain slant to this story that I find hard to appreciate.
This is so wong!
If Face ID was found to recognize only western faces, it would be purely occidental.
nice.
Excellent one.
Stupid Chinese.
No. Stupid click baiting reporter.
Stupid Trondud.
perhaps the simple explanation is the program manager in charge of the developing the face ID algorithm was,… pigmentally well endowed (and only “rolls” w/ others of their own kind)
😉
Pigment has nothing to do with it. It’s measuring facial structure. In 30,000 places.
Trumpdude?
LOL. You loser.
Moron comment.
“It is also higher for children under the age of 13, because their distinct facial features may not have fully developed, according to Apple.”
Though not as important right now since FaceID is only in the iPhone X which would most likely not be given to children under 13 due to cost. If Apple proceeds to use FaceID in more affordable units in the future this caveat may pop up again. Might be fun to see how it works for a bunch of 7th graders.
Siri says “They all look the same to me”
Let Apple investigate and determine the truth behind the allegations. I suspect that most of it is pure hoakum. But it is possible that Apple will need to tweak the FaceID code to improve facial recognition performance across all nationalities.
As far as the accusation of racism – pure BS.