Police use of Clearview AI’s facial recognition increased 26% after Capitol raid

Clearview AI reports that police use of the company’s highly-controversial facial recognition system jumped 26 percent following the raid on the Capitol.

The facial recognition system relies on scraping the data of people from across the web without their explicit consent, a practice which has naturally raised some eyebrows—including the ACLU’s which called it a “nightmare scenario” for privacy.

Around three billion images are said to have been scraped for...

11 January 2021 | Face Recognition

UK and Australia launch joint probe into Clearview AI’s mass data scraping

The UK and Australia have launched a joint probe into the controversial “data scraping” practices of Clearview AI.

Clearview AI has repeatedly made headlines, and rarely for good reason. The company’s facial recognition technology is impressive but relies on scraping billions of people’s data from across the web.

“Common law has never recognised a right to privacy for your face,” Clearview AI lawyer Tor Ekeland argued recently.

Regulators in the UK...

10 July 2020 | Ethics

Detroit Police chief says AI face recognition doesn’t work ‘96% of the time’

Detroit Police chief Editor Craig has acknowledged that AI-powered face recognition doesn’t work the vast majority of times.

“If we would use the software only [for subject identification], we would not solve the case 95-97 percent of the time,” Craig said. “If we were just to use the technology by itself to identify someone, I would say 96 percent of the time it would misidentify.”

Craig’s comments arrive just days after the ACLU (American Civil Liberties...

30 June 2020 | Ethics

The ACLU uncovers the first known wrongful arrest due to AI error

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has forced the police to acknowledge a wrongful arrest due to an erroneous algorithm.

While it’s been suspected that documented racial bias with facial recognition algorithms has led to false arrests, it’s been difficult to prove.

On Wednesday, the ACLU lodged a complaint against the Detroit police after black male Robert Williams was arrested on his front lawn “as his wife Melissa looked on and as his daughters wept from...

25 June 2020 | Face Recognition

Over 1,000 researchers sign letter opposing ‘crime predicting’ AI

More than 1,000 researchers, academics, and experts have signed an open letter opposing the use of AI to predict crime.

Anyone who has watched the sci-fi classic Minority Report will be concerned about attempts to predict crime before it happens. In an ideal scenario, crime prediction could help determine where to allocate police resources – but the reality will be very different.

The researchers are speaking out ahead of an imminent publication titled ‘A Deep Neural...

24 June 2020 | Ethics

Amazon uses AI-powered displays to enforce social distancing in warehouses

Amazon has turned to an AI-powered solution to help maintain social distancing in its vast warehouses.

Companies around the world are having to look at new ways of safely continuing business as we adapt to the "new normal" of life with the coronavirus.

Amazon has used its AI expertise to create what it calls the Distance Assistant. Using a time-of-flight sensor, often found in modern smartphones, the AI measures the distance between...

17 June 2020 | Amazon

World’s oldest defence think tank concludes British spies need AI

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says in an intelligence report that British spies will need to use AI to counter threats.

Based in Westminster, the RUSI is the world’s oldest think tank on international defence and security. Founded in 1831 by the first Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the RUSI remains a highly respected institution that’s as relevant today as ever.

AI is rapidly advancing the capabilities of adversaries. In its report, the RUSI...

28 April 2020 | Adoption

Aussie police use Clearview AI’s facial recognition to fight child exploitation

Police in Australia have employed the use of Clearview AI’s controversial facial recognition to tackle child exploitation.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) admitted to using Clearview AI’s system despite not having a legislative framework in place for the technology.

Deputy commissioner Karl Kent said that the AFP trialled the facial recognition system but has not entered any formal arrangements with Clearview AI to procure their technology.

In a...

15 April 2020 | Face Recognition

Clearview AI has been found to have extensive far-right ties

Controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI has been found to have extensive ties to far-right individuals and movements.

Clearview AI has come under scrutiny for scraping billions of photos from across the internet and storing them in a database for powerful facial recognition services. Privacy activists criticise the practice as the people in those images never gave their consent.

“Common law has never recognised a right to privacy for your face,” Clearview...

8 April 2020 | Ethics

Met Police commissioner dismisses critics of facial recognition systems

uk metropolitan police facial recognition surveillance privacy uk tech ai artificial intelligence face

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