I finally sent Hugging Face a picture of an envelope in front of my laptop. "Nice laptop, but I don't think it's your selfie," the bot responded. "Can you send me a better one?"I asked how it knew that it was my laptop in the photo. "It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!" I asked if it used facial recognition technology. "It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!" Hugging Face finally relented when I sent it a photo of 90s TV star Luke Perry. Then it asked what my name was. Then it asked for my age.Me: That's weird, we just started talking.
Hugging Face: It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
You send me one.
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
I really don't want to send you a selfie.
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
How will the people who created you use my selfie?
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
Can I talk to you without taking a selfie?
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
What are your privacy policies regarding the use of my information including my selfie?
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
Why do you want my selfie?
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
If you were a real person this would be extremely creepy.
It's not a pic fool. Take a pic from the keyboard!
This is all pretty concerning, because Hugging Face's privacy policy, when I finally tracked it down, states that my information will be used to "deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested." Further, "non-personally identifiable" information may be given to third parties "for marketing, advertising, or other uses." It goes on to promise that any personal information will be kept confidential.Basically, the site will use your information for marketing purposes pretty much like every other online service. The difference with Hugging Face is that the exchange felt much less like a request, and more like a demand. Usually, you're offered the opportunity to view a site's privacy policy before being required to pony up sensitive information.When I spoke to New York-based Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue over the phone, he told me that the app asks for a selfie because the team discovered that users wanted to send selfies to their chatbot friend."Selfies, for teenagers, are the main way of communicating emotions," Delangue said. "So we implemented this feature as a way for users to communicate with the AI.""Selfies, for teenagers, are the main way of communicating emotions"