Chinese scientists from the Academy of Sciences have presented an innovative development - an artificial intelligence called Difface, which can recreate a three-dimensional image of a human face based solely on DNA data. This technology opens up new possibilities in finding links between genetic information and human appearance.

The Difface model was trained on data from 9,500 volunteers, each of whom provided a complete sequence of their genome and a 3D scan of their face. The algorithm analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - small variations in DNA associated with appearance traits such as the shape of the nose, cheekbones and chin. Using a diffusion model, AI converts genetic data into a digital image of the face.

Using only DNA data, the average error in recreating the face was about 3.5 mm. Adding information about age, gender and body mass index reduced the error to less than 3 mm, making the technology highly accurate for forensic, medical and genetics applications.

At the moment, Difface only works with individuals of Han Chinese descent, as the training set did not cover other ethnic groups. Expanding the model's capabilities requires more diverse data and, most importantly, strict ethical and confidentiality guidelines