Facial recognition software tracks down politicians who mobilize at work

Belgian artist Dries Depoorter monitors YouTube broadcasts of government meetings with artificial intelligence to determine which compatriot is paying less attention to the forum.

Anyone who has ever watched a parliamentary broadcast could see for sure that not all politicians are paying attention to their fellow Members. They usually read a newspaper or press their tablet on their cell phone. It is no different in the Belgian legislature, to which a Belgian artist has now drawn attention.

Dries Depoorter uses artificial intelligence to watch YouTube broadcasts of Flemish government meetings. When the video starts, the software uses machine learning to monitor which politician is pressing his phone, and then a face recognition software also identifies the natives in question.

Once identified, Depoorter will post the videos made on Twitter and Instagram, writes The Next Web.

Every meeting of the flemish government in Belgium is live streamed on a YouTube channel.
Software is searching for phones and tries to identify a distracted politician. This with the help of AI. The results are then posted to social with the politician tagged. By @driesdepoorter pic.twitter.com/QUQHiYx2HI

— The Flemish Scrollers (@FlemishScroller) July 5, 2021

Although the project draws attention to a significant problem, not everyone likes the “wall of shame” created by the artist. Of course, you don’t know why a given politician is mobilizing because you may be looking at the screen just because of an emergency.

Nonetheless, two years ago, the Belgian Prime Minister, Jan Jambon, fell while Andry Birds was on his device during a debate.