ACLU is suing the US gov for blocking airport facial recognition probe

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the US government for blocking a probe into the use of facial recognition in airports.

Homeland Security announced in December that it was ditching plans to scan the faces of every person arriving at airports in favour of those who are not US or permanent residents.

Very little information has been given by Homeland Security about what they’re doing with the facial recognition data.

Human rights groups...

13 March 2020 | Face Recognition

Equality watchdog calls for facial recognition to be halted

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has called for the public use of facial recognition to be halted.

Concerns have been raised about facial recognition’s potential to automate racial discrimination and hinder freedom of expression.

The UK, the second most surveilled nation after China, has been at the forefront of testing facial recognition systems in the West. Police in London and South Wales have tested facial recognition in stadiums, arenas, and...

12 March 2020 | Face Recognition

Clearview AI lawyer: ‘Common law has never recognised a right to privacy for your face’

A lawyer for controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI says your face has no right to privacy in common law.

Clearview’s facial recognition system is used by over 600 law enforcement agencies and a recent leak revealed its client list also includes the likes of Best Buy and Macy’s.

The system has been criticised due to its method of scraping the internet to gather images and storing them in a database. Privacy activists say the people in those images...

6 March 2020 | Face Recognition

Met Police commissioner dismisses critics of facial recognition systems

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The chief commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has dismissed critics of law enforcement using facial recognition systems.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick was speaking at the Royal United Services Institute think tank on Monday. Much of Dick’s speech was spent on making the case for British police to use modern technologies to tackle crime.

https://youtu.be/8lv7qw6X_rs?t=1848

Dick accused critics of police facial recognition technology as being “highly...

25 February 2020 | Face Recognition

Shanghai uses facial recognition to help catch drug offenders

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Facial recognition is being used in Shanghai to help catch individuals suspected of abusing pharmaceuticals.

South China Morning Post reports that Shanghai is testing facial recognition terminals in pharmacies that will verify a person’s identity prior to dispensing controlled substances.

Some legal medications can be turned into banned drugs. Cold and allergy medications, for example, often contain ephedrine which is a key component of crystal meth.

Any...

17 January 2020 | China

Intel examines whether AI can recognise faces using thermal imaging

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Researchers from Intel have published a study examining whether AI can recognise people’s faces using thermal imaging.

Thermal imaging is often used to protect privacy because it obscures personally identifying details such as eye colour. In some places, like medical facilities, it’s often compulsory to use images which obscure such details.

AI is opening up many new possibilities so Intel’s researchers set out to determine whether thermal imaging still offers a...

10 January 2020 | Face Recognition

Applause’s new AI solution helps tackle bias and sources data at scale

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Testing specialists Applause have debuted an AI solution promising to help tackle algorithmic bias while providing the scale of data needed for robust training.

Applause has built a vast global community of testers for its app testing solution which is trusted by brands including Google, Uber, PayPal, and more. The company is leveraging this relatively unique asset to help overcome some of the biggest hurdles facing AI development.

AI News spoke with Kristin Simonini, VP...

6 November 2019 | Applications

Study highlights just how poor AIs are at recognising non-cisgender people

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A study conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder has revealed just how bad AIs are at recognising non-cisgender people.

The worrying problems AIs have with recognising racial minorities are becoming increasingly well-documented, but this new study is among the first to evaluate gender classifications.

AI systems categorise people based on what they can “see” and often use stereotypical parameters (e.g. males don’t have long hair, females don’t have facial...

18 October 2019 | Ethics

US adds Chinese AI firms to ban list citing abuses against Muslims in Xinjiang

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A collection of Chinese AI and facial recognition firms have been added to a US blacklist citing rights abuses against Muslims in Xinjiang.

28 Chinese firms have been added (PDF) to the “entity list” of the US government which prohibits American companies from continuing any links with them.

The US government said the firms were blacklisted for playing a role in the "implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology...

8 October 2019 | China

UK police are concerned AI will lead to bias and over-reliance on automation

British police have expressed concern that using AI in their operations may lead to increased bias and an over-reliance on automation.

A study commissioned by UK government advisory body the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation warned that police felt AI may "amplify" prejudices.

50 experts were interviewed by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for the research, including senior police officers.

Racial profiling continues to be a huge problem. More...

17 September 2019 | Face Recognition