This AI Can Tell if You're Depressed by Looking at Your Instagram Photos

Researchers from Harvard and the University of Vermont have found a way to use Instagram to detect depression. Using machine learning tools, they developed a model that can predict whether a person is clinically depressed with surprising accuracy, just by looking at their Instagram photos. It's important to note right away that this model is just the beginning. The researchers themselves only go so far as to say that "these findings suggest new avenues for early screening and detection of mental illness," and "the findings reported here should not be taken as enduring facts." That said, their results are impressive.