Terrifying AI matches DNA to facial recognition databases

Cops would love to have a system that uses DNA from a crime scene to generate a picture of a suspect's face, but that tech is still restricted to science fiction. That technology may never exist, but a team of Belgian and American engineers just developed something similar. Using what they know about how DNA shapes the human face, the researchers built an algorithm that scans through a database of images and selects the faces that could be linked to the DNA found at a crime scene, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications -- a powerful crime-fighting tool, but also a terrifying new way to subvert privacy. Because people's faces are also shaped by things like diet, age, environment, and socioeconomic background, it's impossible to predict what someone will look like based on DNA alone. "This method mostly helps rule people out," Catholic University of Leuven engineer Peter Claes said in a press release.