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 and Australia seem to have a different perspective than Ekeland and have announced a joint probe into Clearview AI’s practices.

“The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have opened a joint investigation into the personal information handling practices of Clearview Inc., focusing on the company’s use of ‘scraped’ data and biometrics of individuals,” the ICO wrote in a statement.

“The investigation highlights the importance of enforcement cooperation in protecting the personal information of Australian and UK citizens in a globalized data environment.”

A similar probe was launched by the EU’s privacy watchdog last month.

The European Data Protection Board ruled that any use of the service by law enforcement in Europe would “likely not be consistent with the EU data protection regime” and that it “has doubts as to whether any Union or Member State law provides a legal basis for using a service such as the one offered by Clearview AI.”

Clearview AI’s facial recognition system is used by over 2,200 law enforcement agencies around the world. A recent leak suggests it’s even being used by commercial businesses like Best Buy and Macy’s. In May, Clearview said it would stop working with non–law enforcement entities.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched a lawsuit against Clearview AI in May after calling it a “nightmare scenario” for privacy.

Aside from the company’s practices, concerns have been raised about Clearview AI’s extensive ties with the far-right. Ekeland himself has gained notoriety as “The Troll’s Lawyer” for defending clients such as neo-Nazi troll Andrew Auernheimer.

“Companies like Clearview will end privacy as we know it, and must be stopped,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

(Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash)

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Duplex probably needs little introduction as it caused a bit of a stir when it debuted at I/O in late 2018 (when conferences were things you could still physically attend.)

The human-sounding AI could perform actions like calling a business on a person’s behalf and booking in things such as hair appointments or table reservations.

Duplex is undeniably impressive, but it prompted a debate over whether AIs should have to state they’re not human before imitating one. Google has since decided to add disclosures at the beginning of calls and give businesses the option to opt-out of being called by an AI.

Humans haven’t been completely replaced by Duplex. Google says around a quarter of Duplex calls are started by humans, and 15 percent start with an AI but are later intervened by a human if issues arise or the person receiving the call opts not to speak with an AI.

In terms of devices, the rollout of Duplex started on Pixel phones (obviously) before making the slightly odd decision to launch on iOS devices. More Android phones then began joining the party.

(Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash)

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Many of us know how voice services often struggle with even “normal” conversations, despite vast training datasets available. National and regional accents are difficult enough without adding in industry-specific jargon.

However, correctly understanding medical terms could mean life or death. With healthcare set to be one of the industries most revolutionised by AI, understanding the jargon is vital for it to reach its full potential safely.

Several tech giants have existing healthcare partnerships and can use their influence to obtain data in ways that are difficult for smaller competitors. Of course, many of these corporations are known to harvest personal data for their own means.

The researchers, from the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) at Macquarie University, are aiming to build an alternative to the AI medical scribing systems being developed by tech giants.

“We need recordings of tens of thousands of conversations between patients and doctors so the AI can learn patterns from the data,” Dr Juan Quiroz, one of the researchers working on the project, told Macquarie’s Lighthouse publication.

“Doctors and clinicians rarely record their consultations,” he added.

Medical practitioners are often overburdened enough, so asking them to record consultations is both invasive and adding more to their daily work. Large financial incentives may help, which is again where the big tech giants hold a significant advantage in addition to their established partnerships.

The majority of the world’s biggest tech companies have some form of AI healthcare initiative. Just last week, AI News reported on Amazon’s announcement of its own Transcribe Medical solution.

Amazon says Transcribe Medical can be deployed across “thousands” of healthcare facilities to provide clinicians with secure note-taking abilities. The solution is covered under AWS’ HIPAA eligibility and business associate addendum (BAA) which means that any customer that enters into a BAA with AWS can process and store personal health information legally.

The researchers have an uphill battle ahead of them against players like Amazon, but it’s hard not to admire their ambition and noble cause.

You can find the AIHI researchers’ full paper published in science journal Nature here.

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