Numerous academic studies have used Twitter and Facebook as sandboxes for computational personality recognition experiments.

What they’re hoping to understand: Given a set of data, can an A.I. system predict how you’re likely to react in just about any situation?

This was also a question posed by the now infamous predictive analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which in 2018 used automated personality recognition and targeting to help Donald Trump win the election. Political candidates, law firms, marketers, customer service reps and others are beginning to use new systems that review your online behavior, emails, and conversations you have by phone and in person, to assess your personality in real time.

The goal: to predict your specific needs and desires. ElectronicArts is working on a system that assesses the personality of its multiplayer video game users to do a better job of matching players, using their play style, conversational style and willingness to spend money as criteria.

In the real world, insurance underwriters are attempting to assess your personality—via your magazine and website subscriptions, the photos you post to social media, and more—in order to determine how risky an investment you are. Some lenders have used personality algorithms to predict your future financial transactions.

In the field of human resources, hiring managers are using personality recognition systems to decide whether you’ll be a good cultural fit for their organization.