Amazon has announced a one year ban on the police from using its facial recognition platform known as Rekognition. This follows an earlier announcement by IBM that it would no longer offer, develop, or research the technology.
“We’re implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology,” the statement reads. The company is, additionally, calling for stronger regulations on the use of facial recognition technology. It hopes that the one year ban on the police will enable Congress pass proper regulations regarding its use.
“We’ve advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge. We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested” Amazon said.
IBM on its part cites the potential human rights and privacy abuses as reasons it is quitting on the technology. The company says facial recognition technology remains biased. With the bias along lines of age, gender, race, and ethnicity, despite the advancement in its research.
Also read:
– PS5 Price Leaks Online And It Is Sure To Leave A Hole In Your Pocket
– Tesla And Catl Team Produce Car Battery That Lasts 2 Million Kilometres
– Your Mask Is Fake! 3M Sues Amazon Third-Party Sellers For Selling Counterfeit N95 Masks
Amazon had previously denied these realities even after a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, Joy Buolamwini, and a member at Microsoft Research, Timnit Gebru in 2019 analysed Rekognition. The two found that Amazon’s Rekognition had significant error rates identifying the gender of darker-skinned people. Rekognition would mistake darker-skinned women for men while being almost flawless while analysing images of lighter-skinned people.
Despite the ban on police, Rekognition will still be available to organisations fighting human trafficking and finding missing children.
“We will continue to allow organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Marinus Analytics to use Amazon Rekognition to help rescue human trafficking victims and reunite missing children with their families,” the company said.
For your daily dose of tech, lifestyle, and trending content, make sure to follow Plat4om on Twitter @Plat4omLive, on Instagram @Plat4om, on LinkedIn at Plat4om, and on Facebook at Plat4om. You can also email us at info@plat4om.com. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.