Weirdest Shit Out of Silicon Valley
Artificial Intelligence Can Now Help You Find Your ‘Twin Stranger’
The fun side of facial recognition?
Weirdest Shit Out of Silicon Valley is a weekly series from The Bold Italic documenting the bizarre news, gadgets, and developments in the tech world.
I’m sure that at some point in your life, you’ve been asked/told what random celebrity you slightly resemble, and if the comparison was flattering, you’ll never forget it. One friend is forever owning his Bieber doppelgänger, even as he ages out.
I just watched the mini-documentary Finding My Twin Stranger by Channel 4, and dropped down a rabbit hole of identical-ish strangers. In the film, researchers collect a bunch of “twins” and analyze them using 3D scanning technology, 2D facial recognition analysis, DNA testing, and audience assessments. Two girls share a nose that’s 90%–95% identical (I didn’t want to rewatch it to confirm!) — “the same as identical twins,” the researcher tells them.
During the documentary, one website is constantly credited as helping people twin up: Twin Strangers.
Through this site, you can (for free) upload your picture, and their A.I. tool will match you against the millions of other submissions in their…