Data Portraits

Data Portraits

Visitors are prompted to login with their Google account. Their Google ad profile is then accessed, which contains information about Google users’ interests based on their search activity (e.g. music and audio, American football, apparel, nature). The exhibit then uses this data to create a “data portrait” of the visitor. Images representing the visitor’s interests are overlaid on a photograph of themselves. The image is then printed out. The visitor is able to use a station with craft materials to revise and edit the parts of their portraits that they feel are inaccurate. The aim of this exhibit is to encourage visitors to consider what might be missing from Google’s AI-constructed version of their identity.

Competencies: recognizing AI; learning from data; critically interpreting data; ethics; AI’s strengths and weaknesses

Design Considerations: contextualizing data; explainability; leveraging learners’ interests; social interaction