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NightlyPoe said:
numberwang said: 

An algorithm deduced the sexuality of people on a dating site with up to 91% accuracy, raising tricky ethical questions

Artificial intelligence can accurately guess whether people are gay or straight based on photos of their faces, according to new research that suggests machines can have significantly better “gaydar” than humans.

When the software reviewed five images per person, it was even more successful – 91% of the time with men and 83% with women.

That's not all that impressive in context.  They could have gotten a much more accurate predictor if they'd just had the algorithm say "straight" every single time.  Then the accuracy would jump up to around 95-96%.

Nem said:

Erm... it's been scientifically proven that it is genetic. So, yes, you are born into it.

No it hasn't.  There's a correlation to be sure, but humans are complex creatures that are a sum of their genetics, experiences, upbringing via parents, cultures, traumas, successes, support structures, social status, opportunities, etc..

Any all or nothing statement on why people act and want what they do is faulty (and in this case a politically motivated myth).  It's never as simple as nature vs. nurture for anything.

I never really understood why the question mattered anyway.

If you're not born with it, that would suggest that there's a choice involved. That just doesn't seem to be right, if you think about it. Do you feel that you could just choose someday to go the other way? I couldn't. You like what you like.