AI researchers design 'privacy filter' for your photos: New algorithm protects users' privacy by dynamically disrupting facial recognition tools designed to identify faces in photos

As concerns over privacy and data security on social networks grow, U of T Engineering researchers led by Professor Parham Aarabi and graduate student Avishek Bose have created an algorithm to dynamically disrupt facial recognition systems. "Personal privacy is a real issue as facial recognition becomes better and better," says Aarabi. "This is one way in which beneficial anti-facial-recognition systems can combat that ability." Their solution leverages a deep learning technique called adversarial training, which pits two artificial intelligence algorithms against each other. Aarabi and Bose designed a set of two neural networks: the first working to identify faces, and the second working to disrupt the facial recognition task of the first.