#AngryWhiteOldMale (2020) - In Collaboration with Arthur Miller

An AI Facial Recognition Overlay Live Streamed on FB During the presidential debate 

Artificial Intelligence played a key role in the 2016 presidential election. Big data was harvested on tens of millions unwitting Facebook users and used to create detailed psychological profiles which were then used to identify ‘persuadable’ voters, match ads with their individual traits and sway their vote. This affair which became known as the ‘Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal’ is one example out of many in which AI algorithms are used AGAINST us and not FOR us. In the project #AngryWhiteOldMale we ask ourselves how such algorithms can be used to serve the people. What if instead of letting corporations and governments collect data on us, we get to use these same algorithms and platforms to learn more about them? What if we do it without their consent? What kind of information will we learn on these public figures and how will it affect our vote? As a first attempt to do so, we livestream the third 2020 presidential debate in real-time on Facebook, while having an AI face-recognition algorithm analyze the candidates faces.