‘Sorry. I’m just so excited and want to drive home how this works. What we have here is a tool that can scrape all of thesesites, all this data, creating a massive database of billions of pictures, along with all the biographical information that goes with those pictures. The genius part is that when you scan a photo of a face, the system scans the database for a match, and it isinsanelyaccurate. You saw how it worked even when the face was partially hidden. It’s able to build a full picture of someone’s face from the part that’s visible. I’ve tested it using pictures of everyone I know, and it always gets it right.’
Charles appeared to be deep in thought. Eventually, he said, ‘Is there nothing else like this out there?’
Zack knew he needed to respond carefully. ‘There is. There’s a tool that’s already being used by some police forces and government agencies in the US, but it’s purely photo recognition. It’s able to identify people who commit crimes. For example, if CCTV catches someone but the police don’t know who they are, they can use this tool to identify them. It doesn’t do what this tool does, though, providing a biography as well as all the connections. Ours is also far easier to use. The interface is beautiful. People are going to go crazy for it.’
Charles’s eyebrows went up. ‘You see this as a consumer product?’
‘I’m not sure. It depends on whether we could overcome the legal issues. Concerns about privacy. But I think if any company was going to be able to get past that, it’s us. We’re not a bunch of upstart tech bros. We’re well respected, and you have a lot of contacts.’
Charles was good friends with several government ministers. He had also sat on numerous advisory committees over the years and had already been awarded a CBE for his services to the British economy.
‘If we’re unable to do that, I think we can still build a very lucrative income stream selling this to law enforcement, securitycompanies, and so on. Or even high-net-worth individuals who might be willing to pay large sums to access a tool like this.’
‘What for?’
‘I can think of a hundred reasons. You might want to identify a face at a protest, a troublemaker on your property. Or maybe—’ He laughed. ‘You spot a pretty girl on the street and want to know who she is. All you have to do is take her photo.’
Charles stared at him, and for a moment Zack thought he might have gone too far. After all, when you said it out loud it did sound a little creepy. But then Charles said, ‘Interesting.’
Charles scrolled through the results for Bindiya Patil again. He paused at the bottom of the screen.
‘There’s a list of similar matches, too?’
‘Yes. People who we might think of as Bindiya’s lookalikes. I’ve been reading up on this because when I saw these “similar matches” it made me wonder if I might have a double out there myself. Apparently, you only have something like a one in a trillion chance of finding two exact matches because there are so many variables in the human face. They have to be the same age as you, too, which lengthens the odds. But most of us have someone out there, of the same age, who is almost identical. As close to a doppelgänger as you’re ever going to get. I found mine. He lives in Sydney. If I ever need to swap identities with someone, I reckon we could fool pretty much everyone. Except this app, of course.’
‘Have you got a name for it?’
‘I was thinkingFase.’ He spelled out the acronym. ‘Facial Analysis Search Engine.’ He paused. ‘You don’t like it? I can get one of the creatives to work on it.’
He waited for Charles’s reaction. Again, Charles seemed lost in thought. He was beginning to think his boss hadstarted spontaneously meditating when Charles said, ‘This is all fascinating. Extremely fascinating.’
That didn’t sound like a full commitment. Hurriedly, Zack said, ‘I’ll do all the costings and a forecast, write up a full report and get it to you to look at over the break.’
‘Yes.’ Charles’s voice had taken on an uncharacteristically dreamy quality. ‘You do that.’
He left the office without another word, leaving Zack feeling oddly deflated. Was Charles worried about the privacy concerns? Was it his usual conservative scepticism about moving the company into software? Whatever it was, Zack vowed to do everything he could to convince Charles this had to be pursued.
He needn’t have worried. Because the next time he met with Charles, in early January, Charles had come to see the full potential of Fase.
And there was something he wanted to try.
24
2025
‘You used it to find Jasmine!’ Miranda yelled, after quickly telling the room what she’d learned from the emails. ‘You scanned a photo of Mum and used it to find her clone. It’s sick. Vile.’
I noticed that she directed her anger at Zack rather than her dad. And instead of trying to pass the buck on to Charles, Zack took it.
‘She’s not quite her doppelgänger,’ he said in a steady voice. ‘Jasmine isn’t one hundred per cent identical to Elizabeth.’
Holly had been standing when Miranda burst into the room and flung the laptop at her husband. Now, she dropped on to the nearest kitchen chair, looking like she’d been shot.
She lifted her face towards Charles. ‘Is this true, Dad?’
His tone was as calm as Zack’s. ‘Not an exact match, no. I can see the difference, of course. I thought you would be able to as well.’
‘But it’s… gross.’ Holly sounded like she was about to start crying. I went over to stand behind her, putting my hand on her shoulder.Grosswas right. An app that could not only identify anyone from a photo or even partial photo but find anyone who looked like them. It was a weapon for creeps and stalkers. And Charles had used it to find himself a wife. Forall intents and purposes, Jasmine was physically identical to Elizabeth. It was as if he’d discovered a time machine that had helped him go back in time and bring his thirty-four-year-old, healthy wife into the present day.
