The increasing use of facial recognition by Law enforcement agencies

This little known AI startup is becoming a favorite of law enforcers around the world.

It was last year that the tech hub of San Francisco took the bold move of banning Facial Recognition by any of its 53 departments — in turn becoming the first city in the U.S to pass such a ban. Ever since that decision, many municipalities in the U.S have followed suit. This was a little strange considering Silicon Valley is much well-known to embrace technology than to regulate it or shun it completely like in this case.

But the move had some sound reasons behind it. Serious drawbacks were noted in the AI system being used to identify people — the algorithms employed turned out to be racially biased, especially when they attempted to identify women or people with darker tones, not to mention the invasive nature of the technology.

Interestingly, the big techs are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to such a ban. While Sunder Pichai, CEO of Google, agreed to employ a proportionate approach when drafting rules for the EU temporary ban, Microsoft is adamant that the only way to improve technology is to use it & then fix the problems.

Recently, the U.S published AI regulatory guidelines which included limiting authorities’ overreach, however, EU is taking a much aggressive & proactive approach as it did with the data regulations a couple of years ago. For now, though, despite the obvious flaws, which exhibit human bias, the intrusive technology continues to be used by law enforcement agencies around the World.

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