Computers Can Now Automatically Stereotype 'Hipsters' and 'Bikers'

Admit it, you've done this: You've stereotyped the mustachioed guy in thick-rimmed glasses as a "hipster," the girl in excessive black eyeliner as a "goth," the beefy guy in leather as a "biker." These terms are all admittedly obnoxious. But the fact that we often wear our social identity in our accessories speaks to the reality that cities are made up of myriad subcultures. Sociologists call them "urban tribes."

Obviously, it doesn't take a lot of nuance to identify these groups with your own eyes. Identifying them by computer, though, is a much trickier task. Computer Scientists at the University of California at San Diego, Columbia University and the University of Zaragoza in Spain have actually been developing algorithms to do this – to automatically mine group photos for markers of collective identities.