Facial Recognition Has To Be Regulated To Protect the Public, Says AI Report

A new report (PDF) from the AINow Institute calls for the U.S. government to take general steps to improve the regulation of facial recognition technology amid much debate over the privacy implications. 'The implementation of AI systems is expanding rapidly, without adequate governance, oversight, or accountability regimes,' it says. The report suggests, for instance, extending the power of existing government bodies in order to regulate AI issues, including use of facial recognition: 'Domains like health, education, criminal justice, and welfare all have their own histories, regulatory frameworks, and hazards.' MIT Technology Review reports: It also calls for stronger consumer protections against misleading claims regarding AI; urges companies to waive trade-secret claims when the accountability of AI systems is at stake (when algorithms are being used to make critical decisions, for example); and asks that they govern themselves more responsibly when it comes to the use of AI. And the document suggests that the public should be warned when facial-recognition systems are being used to track them, and that they should have the right to reject the use of such technology.

The report also warns about the use of emotion tracking in face-scanning and voice detection systems. Tracking emotion this way is relatively unproven, yet it is being used in potentially discriminatory ways -- for example, to track the attention of students. 'It's time to regulate facial recognition and affect recognition,' says Kate Crawford, cofounder of AINow and one of the lead authors of the report. 'Claiming to 'see' into people's interior states is neither scientific nor ethical.'

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