Shanghai uses facial recognition to help catch drug offenders

china facial recognition ai face detection artificial intelligence drugs

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

intel thermal imaging ai artificial intelligence facial recognition face

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

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

Police in China will use AI face recognition to identify ‘lost’ elderly

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Chinese police hope to use AI-powered facial recognition, in combination with the nation's mass surveillance network, to identify lost elderly people.

The country's surveillance network is often scrutinised for being invasive, but the ability to detect potentially vulnerable people helps to shift the perception that it primarily benefits the government.

Public data suggests around 500,000 elderly people get lost each year, the equivalent of around 1,370 per day. About 72...

5 August 2019 | China

AI Expo Global: Fairness and safety in artificial intelligence

AI News sat down with Faculty's head of research Ilya Feige to discuss safe and fair practices in artificial intelligence development.

Feige had just finished giving a talk entitled ‘Fairness in AI: Latest developments in AI safety’ at this year's AI Expo Global. We managed to grab him to get more of his thoughts on the issue.

Rightfully, people are becoming increasingly concerned about unfair and unsafe AIs. Human biases are seeping into algorithms which poses a...

1 May 2019 | Ethics

EU AI Expert Group: Ethical risks are ‘unimaginable’

The EU Commission’s AI expert group has published its assessment of the rapidly-advancing technology and warned it has “unimaginable” ethical risks.

Some of the highlighted risks includes lethal autonomous systems, tracking individuals, and ‘scoring’ people in society.

On the subject of lethal autonomous systems, the experts warn machines with cognitive skills could “decide whom, when and where to fight without human intervention”.

When it comes...

11 April 2019 | Ethics

Amazon joins calls to establish facial recognition standards

Amazon has put its weight behind the growing number of calls from companies, individuals, and rights groups to establish facial recognition standards.

Michael Punke, VP of Global Public Policy at Amazon Web Services, said.

"Over the past several months, we've talked to customers, researchers, academics, policymakers, and others to understand how to best balance the benefits of facial recognition with the potential risks.

It's critical that any legislation protect...

8 February 2019 | Amazon

Microsoft warns its AI offerings ‘may result in reputational harm’

Microsoft has warned investors that its AI offerings could damage the company’s reputation in a bid to prepare them for the worst.

AI can be unpredictable, and Microsoft already has experience. Back in 2016, a Microsoft chatbot named Tay became a racist, sexist, generally-rather-unsavoury character after internet users took advantage of its machine learning capabilities

The chatbot was covered in media around the world and itself was bound to have caused Microsoft some...

6 February 2019 | Ethics

Joy Buolamwini: Fighting algorithmic bias needs to be ‘a priority’

Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini gave a speech during the World Economic Forum this week on the need to fight AI bias.

Buolamwini is also an MIT Media Lab researcher and went somewhat viral for her TED Talk in 2016 titled ‘How I’m fighting bias in algorithms’.

Her latest speech included a presentation in which Buolamwini went over an analysis of the current popular facial recognition algorithms.

Here were the overall accuracy results when...

24 January 2019 | Ethics