How do you train a facial recognition AI reportedly doctor enough to rival Apple ’s Face ID technology ? Simple : You offer strangers $ 5 if they lend you their face .

At least that ’s how Google employee went about collecting face scans , according to tale fromAndroid PoliceandZDNetthat Google confirmed withthe Vergetoday . In various cities across the country , they ’ve been reportedly doling out $ 5 Starbucks and Amazon talent visiting card to people on the street in exchange for the totally not creepy request of a few selfies . This “ field research , ” as the fellowship name to it , was an effort to get together extra case - scanning data to ultimately improve the accuracy of its approaching Pixel 4 ’s facial recognition engineering . With each scan , Google said it was gathering infrared , coloration , and depth data , which gives us a little look under the hood of how its tech may ultimately ferment .

In fussy , a Google spokesperson told the Verge the company was trying to increase the diversity of faces the Pixel 4 could recognise . That ’s an apprehensible precaution given all the flack facial recognition technologyhas been gettingforgender and racial bias(not to channelise the finger’s breadth at any one fellowship in special , unless that company isAmazon ) .

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Screenshot: (Google)

“ Our end is to build the feature with racy security system and execution , ” a Google spokesperson told the Verge . “ We ’re also building it with inclusiveness in mind , so as many multitude as possible can gain . ”

The companyreleased footageof its flagship smartphone today , confirm rumors that themysterious bezel cutoutswe saw in official simulacrum last month will be for Project Soli . Now under the new moniker Motion Sense , Project Soli is a series of radiolocation - based detector the company ’s been working onfor yearsthat detects and track the movement of nearby objects . This let substance abuser unlock the earphone handwriting - gratuitous and use gestures to execute certain operation . In the video , we see a young girl flick through medicine running with a swipe of her hand .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnRbXWojW7c

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

throw that Google claims its applied science is secure enough that you ’ll be able to authenticate payments and enter to apps with just your face on the Pixel 4 , it ’s no wonder they went the extra mile to get it right . And as a note : thecompany statedthat these CAT scan do n’t depart the gimmick , and users ’ faces wo n’t be stored on the cloud or shared with other Google services .

Google tell the Verge it design to keep the face CAT scan it collected through its inquiry for 18 month , even though consent forms they give out stated a limit of 5 years . These scan were also give an abstract individuality number disjoined from the e-mail address each soul provided , as well as being “ encrypted and access restricted , ” so they wo n’t connect back to any Google ID the someone may have .

To combat prejudice in its own AI , Apple supposedly used overa billion imagesto develop its facial matching nervous networks . Less creepy ? Definitely . More efficient ? I guess we ’ll see when the Pixel 4 debuts , purportedly at Google ’s one-year mathematical product showcase this fall .

William Duplessie

AndroidAppleGooglePixelPixel 4Smartphones

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