-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
FaceApp apparently now has race filters. I never got the humor in these.
- Thread starter Afrocious
- Start date
Aztechnology
Member
Lmaoooooo
Take a look at @Nadialiii's Tweet: https://twitter.com/Nadialiii/status/895348718047776769?s=09
I was on the plane the other day back to Spokane from Chicago. I seriously thought she was in the aisle across from me, I'm sitting there palming my phone, waiting for the opportunity to snap a sneaky shot for GAF. It was a white woman, same facial features, same style of dress, same hair etc. Really glad I didn't, wasn't her. The resemblance was crazy though.
KirbYuuYuu
Member
Damn I didn't see if this work in anime characters
LordKasual
Banned
what pieces of shit got this removed, god dammit this was about to be hours of fun
i dont have an iphone
m_shortpants
Member
I'm a minority POC. I used it and thought it was interesting. I wasn't laughing or anything, just thought it was novel to see.
Every version of me looks dorky.
It's crazy how well the tech works. I could see all of these being real people.
My favorite part about this thread is all the people tripping over each other, ready to say it is not offensive because they don't think it is.
Every version of me looks dorky.
you resemble tiger woods lol
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Did we get Robert Downey Jr playing a dude disguised as another dude?
I wanted to make Black Kurapika and Gon lol. Would have made a great avy for myself.
There hasn't been a single good comment explaining why the tech is offensive
blankempathy
Member
I swear some of these "filters" are real people are you're just messing with me. Interesting tech shut down simply because people were screaming about the abuse. Abuse is going to happen. Its in peoples nature. Doesn't mean we should squash a technology.
At a point, you kinda give up on explaining the ramifications of using such an app and drawing the distinction between being offended at the existence of an app and the the usage of such an app.
I was already mentally tired. One GAFfer PM'd me with some kind words and an interesting question about how an application like this can be good for reinforcing diversity in media (mainly gaming).
However, I'm now physically tired from exercising. And after that color pencil post, I don't think I have the energy to jump through the mental hoops placed before me.
I felt like I made decent enough posts about the above distinction but I'm an easily ignored individual on this board. I, however, did manage to piss off some folks by being the OP by simply creating this thread. While funny, me responding openly in this thread would be pointless.
It's not that people who like this app (and had fun with it) can't see how it can be used for racist reasons, it's just that some people don't want to focus on the potential evils of everything.
Which was the point of the pencil post. You can use them to draw racist caricatures if wanted, but there's a good reason for the pencils (more so than the app, anyway).
The thread was made with the idea that it's a terrible thing which is precisely why it got taken down. Not everyone thinks that's a good thing, that literally anything that merely touches on race has to be seen for its potential worst.
I mean, it would be like saying people in the deep south shouldn't be allowed to watch BET on cable because otherwise they'd take the piss out of it and use it for racist means. Who cares what the racist will do?
--
Anyway, Black Lightning is the best thing from this and we got it, so
Which was the point of the pencil post. You can use them to draw racist caricatures if wanted, but there's a good reason for the pencils (more so than the app, anyway).
The thread was made with the idea that it's a terrible thing which is precisely why it got taken down. Not everyone thinks that's a good thing, that literally anything that merely touches on race has to be seen for its potential worst.
I mean, it would be like saying people in the deep south shouldn't be allowed to watch BET on cable because otherwise they'd take the piss out of it and use it for racist means. Who cares what the racist will do?
--
Anyway, Black Lightning is the best thing from this and we got it, so
Airola
Member
It's not your skin color. It's a skin color. No-one has programmed this app to pick your skin color to it.
Besides people were using it in all kinds of ways, like looking at a picture of a 'black man' as a 'white man' and I'm sure they are just as amused by the white skin than they are with the black skin, or anything in between. Along with the skin color they are looking at different facial features, different types of hair.
And some of them are genuinely funny with no ill will towards anyone. It's not much different from, say, the Conan O'Brien sketches where they morph two faces into something new and call the result the baby of those two persons. Some of the results are pretty, some are funny, some are horrifying. And the results can be each of those with each skin color.
If everything that offended someone would be removed from the world, there would be nothing left. That's why sometimes things are ok to exist even if someone feels offended about it.
EDIT:
And beyond the possible "funny values" from this app, it's also used for just genuinely interesting observations without a need to get a laugh from it.
SecretMoblin
Member
You didn't "piss anyone off", you just opened the thread with the heavy insinuation that this app was a problematic (at least) and dangerous (at worst) tool, and then when a bunch of people of various races and walks of life decided to have fun and reflect on their own racial identity and have a little fun with what-ifs, you jump to "sigh I'm tired" and type more incoherent, baity mess.
LordKasual
Banned
well shit, i wasn't aware someone had patented a skin color
did you get a trademark on any of your features, too?????
does anyone in here owe you money???????????
I like this. Anyone could be any race. People aren't so different after all, we could all be brothers from other mothers. Nothing is strange or alien; we can all be together because appearance is only skin deep and means nothing...
But...
I'd rather be OUTRAGED!! THIS IS CLEARLY THE SAME THING AS RACIST SKITS FROM THE 1920s!
But...
I'd rather be OUTRAGED!! THIS IS CLEARLY THE SAME THING AS RACIST SKITS FROM THE 1920s!
Bubble Metropolis
Member
I scrolled through all seven pages of this thread and laughed out loud every time the Trump photo popped up.
I had one dude openly insinuate I was mad that my thread wasn't going the way I apparently intended, and then another outright say I was baiting (not you).
I also don't think I said anything about the app itself being an issue over the focus of what people got out of it, but again some folks like to paint pictures.
Outrage culture strikes again. Oh no.
Angelus Errare
Banned
So Bieber is
A random kpop artist,
Obeezy's profile pic on his soundcloud page,
Kap G
Doing this with celebrities was actually pretty damn interesting...
Doubt we'll see this again
BTW. Hilarious that a few hours ago they got a bunch of 1 star reviews with people calling the app racist and now they get a bunch of 1 stars with people asking what happened to the new faces.
Doubt we'll see this again
BTW. Hilarious that a few hours ago they got a bunch of 1 star reviews with people calling the app racist and now they get a bunch of 1 stars with people asking what happened to the new faces.
Vicetrailia
Member
Black lightning is fire.
The way people used it was hilarious. 5 minutes of fun.
The way people used it was hilarious. 5 minutes of fun.
MisterHero
Super Member
The other filters clearly categorize the subject by race to make further modifications. It results in a lot of inaccurate Age/Gender approximations, most often I've found through lighting.
If anything having race filters was addressing this directly and the race identifying algorithm or whatever is working as intended.
If anything having race filters was addressing this directly and the race identifying algorithm or whatever is working as intended.
I wanted to try myself with a beard, but it's only available in the Pro version
The beard filter is dope.
Steeped in a Sea of Games
Member
I think the only reason this really smacks as sort of offensive to me is that it comes down to a bunch of predefined characteristics being applied on someone to come up with a completely false representation of what someone would look like as another race. Basically, it's resorting to what could be considered stereotypes (oh, all black people have bigger lips, etc.) to give people a few seconds of entertainment. I dunno.
mugurumakensei
Member
Uh, if it's anything like the smile, female, young, etc filters, it looks for points on your face that closely correlate to the photos the app creators took for reference. If it can't find a close point using a singular model, it starts to blend models until it can map a close representation on your face.
So, no it doesn't just map stereotypical features on top of you. Indeed if you are already close to their references, the most that may happen is your skin tone shifts.
I'm not getting the hate. If the race filter is racist then the gender is sexist, the old is age discrimination etc. It's only racist for racists and sexist for sexists. I hope they bring back the filter. Some of the examples are canned uncanny.
UncleSporky
Member
Well but then upthread you have black Lightning that everyone thought looked awesome, regardless of whether the app applied stereotypical features or not it made for a gorgeous look. Could be seen as inspiring for what could have been, and what could be in the future. Apply it to any game character and use the new face it comes up with as a template for some future game.
Steeped in a Sea of Games
Member
Well, that's certainly more interesting. I see less of a problem if it's just correlating one face to another existing one. Explains why the pictures end up looking so good in the end.
mugurumakensei
Member
The full title is FaceApp: Neural Network Transformations. It processes your faces, processes reference faces, and finally using an AI neural network to transform your face.
Steeped in a Sea of Games
Member
Yeah, I've heard of the technology before, but didn't realize that this was how the app worked. I really don't see a major problem with it this way. It's much closer to an actual approximation in that case. I mean, it's sort of like wearing a mask of someone else's face on your own, but it's still not as bad as using predefined characteristics that someone just cooked up.
DragoonKain
Neighbours from Hell
You not liking the premise of the app is fine, but that doesn't make it racist. Two totally different things entirely.
Cable is channelling a little Denzel Washington.
Denzel or Jamie Fox?