Invisible Images: Your Pictures Are Looking at You

What are the implications of computer vision in relation to machine learning and ‘artificial intelligence’? New York‐based artist and writer Trevor Paglen argues that autonomous image‐interpretation systems, from algorithms that analyse photos on Facebook to licence‐plate readers used by police, constitute a new kind of visuality which is paradoxically largely invisible to human eyes. What is more, this new ‘invisible visuality’ should be understood as a means of centralising power in the hands of the state and corporate actors who are able to deploy machine‐vision systems at scale.