Politics & Policy

This essay on the lessons we learned about deep learning systems and gender recognition is one part of a three-part examination of issues relating to machine vision technology.

The ability of governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor the public using facial recognition was once the province of dystopian science fiction. But modern technology is increasingly bringing versions of these scenarios to life.

A computer can be trained to predict whether an image shows a man or a woman. Can you identify which parts of the face are most essential to the computer’s decision?

Around six-in-ten Democrats support increased spending for scientific research, compared with 40% of Republicans, a gap that has grown over time.

As debates over abortion continue in states around the country, a majority of Americans (61%) continue to say that abortion should be legal in all (27%) or most (34%) cases.

We explored how Americans feel about the tenor of debate in the country in a recent major survey about U.S. political disource. Here's how we did it.

A majority of Democratic voters who prefer one of the presidential candidates are excited about several candidates vying for the party's nomination. Far fewer are enthused only by their first choice.

Most continue to favor legal status for undocumented immigrants

Most Democrats think scientists should take an active role in policy debates, while 56% of Republicans say they should focus on establishing sound scientific facts.