Time is running out to catch the National Library of Medicine’s powerful traveling exhibit, Promising Future, Complex Past: Artificial Intelligence and the Legacy of Physiognomy. It’s on display on the 3rd floor of HSLIC through Friday, April 12, and it’s absolutely worth a visit.
This timely exhibit explores the uncomfortable—and often overlooked—roots of artificial intelligence. Specifically, it unpacks the connection between modern AI and physiognomy, a discredited pseudoscience that claimed to assess intelligence, morality, and criminality based on facial features. While we often focus on AI’s promises of efficiency and innovation, Promising Future, Complex Past asks us to also consider its hidden baggage—and what that means for the ethical development and deployment of new technologies.
The exhibit couldn’t be more relevant as headlines continue to reflect the expanding role of facial recognition technology in our daily lives. From critical examinations like the Harvard Business Review article, Does Facial Recognition Tech Enhance Security?, to thought-provoking documentaries such as Coded Bias and the groundbreaking work of researcher Joy Buolamwini, it’s clear that the legacy of biased systems still shapes today’s AI landscape. This exhibit offers historical context that helps us better understand today’s technologies—and the ethical questions we must ask as they evolve.
Don’t miss your chance to see it before it’s gone. Stop by the 3rd floor of HSLIC before April 12 – bring a friend or colleague and take a few moments to reflect on the complex questions this exhibit raises.