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FaceApp apparently now has race filters. I never got the humor in these.

A

Afrocious

Member
I don't use FaceApp. I don't even know what it is, but apparently this is new and I think I'm kinda spent. A thread on FB popped up with people posting how the app took their pics and made them Black, Asian, and what have you.

Relevant article: https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/09/faceapp-changes-race-selfie-editing-filters/

oeZ6QqJ.jpg
Click to expand...

Take my pic and make me white because it's obviously funny if old.
 
R

RenditMan

Banned
Some people think far too hard about this stuff in their mission to appear the most liberal. If the app only allowed white people to look black or whatever I'd get the upset but it makes anyone look like anyone.

We need to accept we are diverse as a race and it's not racist to acknowledge that.
 
O

Orbis

Member
Dabanton said:
Just tried this it actually looks pretty good haha.
Click to expand...
I was going to say, if it works as well as the example it's kinda neat. I tried the app a long time ago and it did a remarkably good job of ageing me, I looked pretty much like my dad, even though I don't see the resemblance normally. But then it's using neural networks and I imagine a sizeable database of source images so I'm not too surprised.
 
A

Afrocious

Member
RenditMan said:
Some people think too hard about this stuff. If the app only allowed white people to look black or whatever I'd get the upset but it makes anyone look like anyone.

We need to accept we are diverse as a race and it's not racist to acknowledge that.
Click to expand...

That's a big paintbrush you have there.
 
Z

Zen_Arcade

Banned
It looks like it works relatively well. I'd be interested in trying it just to see what it comes up with.

Doesn't really seem like something to make comedy with though. The only thing I can think of that you would use it for is doing accents to match whatever race you've transformed into. And that's just lazy.
 
O

Orbis

Member
Afrocious said:
And what's that? I know snapchat has the dog ears filter but that's all I know of.
Click to expand...
It's interesting and sometimes amusing to see what you may look like with the young/old/man/woman options, from my last experience with it.

To me it's more fascinating as it's not actually a filter, it uses neural networks to process the image and based on what it knows about your face proportions, will find the best matching facial features from its source images and often produce a lifelike transformation. Sometimes it's terrible and produces amusing results though. Sometimes it's lazy and seems to simply transplant your face with another. It's nothing like a 'snapchat filter', which is basically what webcams were doing 15 years ago.
 
K

Kurdel

Banned
Time for our weekly thread about digital blackface, and for people to viciously argue how this is hurting no one.
 
A

Afrocious

Member
Orbis said:
It's interesting and sometimes amusing to see what you may look like with the young/old/man/woman options, from my last experience with it.

To me it's more fascinating as it's not actually a filter, it uses neural networks to process the image and based on what it knows about your face proportions, will find the best matching facial features from its source images and often produce a lifelike transformation. Sometimes it's terrible and produces amusing results though. It's nothing like a 'snapchat filter', which is basically what webcams were doing 15 years ago.
Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong, I think the tech is interesting enough. I think the alterations are well done.

The humor comes from some sort of blackface seemingly legitimized by an app though. Sort of like "Hey look at me! This app changed me into someone of a different race! This is funny!"

Afrodium said:
It's interesting tech using neural networks that doesn't seem to be ill intentioned.
Click to expand...

It's not like people blamed black paint and makeup for blackface though.
 
M

mr2xxx

Banned
I wouldn't call the app racist, but people will use it in racists ways and the there will be a public backlash.
 
S

StickSoldier

Member
Wait, does this only work on white people trying to look like a different race or does it also have a white race filter for people of color to try?

Edit: Ahh I see the picture of the Asian lady being filtered to a white woman.. Well I dunno, I guess it can definitely enable racism, which is unfortunately what will most likely occur, but I kind of like the idea behind the concept just for curiosity purposes.
 
G

Glix

Member
I don't think its wrong to do this, like, just to see what you would look like.

No reason the results need to be shared, ever, with anyone.
 
A

Afrodium

Banned
Afrocious said:
Oh don't get me wrong, I think the tech is interesting enough. I think the alterations are well done.

The humor comes from some sort of blackface seemingly legitimized by an app though. Sort of like "Hey look at me! This app changed me into someone of a different race! This is funny!"
Click to expand...

That's fair, but is that on the app or the users?
 
R

Resident_UA

Member
StickSoldier said:
Wait, does this only work on white people trying to look like a different race or does it also have a white race filter for people of color to try?
Click to expand...

It does, it's race agnostic. It's hard for me to see how the app itself is racist. But of course it could be used for racist purposes (just like anything else really).
 
D

double jump

you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
I don't see a problem with this on the surface but I can understand some feeling like it trivializes their culture.

This is actually pretty interesting to me personally.
 
V

Vital Tundra

Member
Don't see the problem. Everyone can use the app. Its not some exclusive app for white people. I think its neat that technology can do such things with pretty good results.
 
O

Orbis

Member
Afrocious said:
Oh don't get me wrong, I think the tech is interesting enough. I think the alterations are well done.

The humor comes from some sort of blackface seemingly legitimized by an app though. Sort of like "Hey look at me! This app changed me into someone of a different race! This is funny!"
Click to expand...
I don't see the comparison to blackface, blackface is about making yourself up to be a negative stereotype, it's about mocking another race and the intention is entirely racist. I do agree that digital blackface can exist and is disgusting and flat out racist, but I'm not seeing it here. This just tries to convert any face to anything else. White to black, black to white, woman to man, adult to child.
 
S

starchild excalibur

Member
I think any humor that's to be mined from this comes from curiosity at seeing how one may look as another ethnicity and not at humor from "lol that ethnicity looks funny."

The pic posted in the OP is fascinating to me and I find it genuinely impressive how technology found in casual apps like these can produce fairly natural looking results. On the most basic level, it's no different from utilizing the filters that make you look younger, older, or a different sex.

It's an interesting curiosity precisely because it's modifying a visage you've known and seen in its "normal" state.

People can obviously take these images and use them for poor reasons, but I think the technology at play is super fascinating.
 
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