The IT Nerd

A bombshell dropped earlier today from IBM who announced that they are getting out of the facial recognition business. This news came via IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in a letter to Congress today. Here’s the reasons why:

IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software. IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency. We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.

Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that can help law enforcement keep citizens safe. But vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularity when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported.

Finally, national policy also should encourage and advance uses of technology that bring greater transparency and accountability to policing, such as body cameras and modern data analytics techniques.

Clearly this is related to the protests tied to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Companies like IBM are clearly re-evaluating their relationships with police agencies and making adjustments. However, I would say that into this void other companies will step in. Clearview AI who appear not to have the same moral standards as IBM is likely to fill this void. Which means that this tech will still be out there.

This entry was posted on June 9, 2020 at 8:36 am and is filed under Commentary with tags IBM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.