DailyPost 797
FASHION PROFILING
Since the days of Steve Jobs using his knowledge of calligraphy to create different fonts out to the same keyboard, the fashion profiling done by Cambridge Analytica falls into the very same category of surreal. It explains the connectedness of everything in the real world. You should just have the magic. A skill very are difficult to acquire. In the age of Data Science, machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence what all would get connected in what manner, only human imagination is the limit. From racial, ethnic, criminal profiling we are in the days of fashion profiling; what is interesting is the purpose for which has been used.
From US Presidential Elections to fashion, Christopher Wylie has something to contribute. In a recent Business of Fashion conference he took the world by out of the world concept of fashion profiling. The revelation was that for voter profiling firm, clothing preferences had been the key to helping “Steve Bannon build his insurgency.” Fashion Profiling is the art and science of the practice of classifying and targeting individuals based on clothing brand preferences. The reality is that fashion profiling played a bigger role in the 2016 American Presidential elections than anyone realised.
In hindsight it sounds very realistic that clothing preferences can be a key metric for Cambridge Analytica for it’s core task of constructing and selling voter profiles. All this was drawn from Facebook data. “Fashion data was used to build AI models to help Steve Bannon build his insurgency and build the alt-right.” AI can be used as the ultimate tool of manipulation and deception, if one has the capability and intent to do so. The real revelation of the Data Age is that clothing and music preferences are leading indicators of political leaning.
The psychological war being played with the facilitation of data is unfolding the contours of our future. Complex backend for a razor sharp manipulation. Great American brands play on the myths of the west and these align with the narrative of the Republican right. “Those who choose to spend on the former are susceptible to the latter.” He detailed the brands and the well established connects.
MIX OF PSYCHOLOGY, DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS A HEADY COCKTAIL.
Sanjay Sahay