Facial recognition algorithms built by companies like Amazon have been found to misidentify people of color, especially women of color, at higher rates -meaning when police use facial recognition to identify suspects who are not white, they are more likely to arrest the wrong person.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna explained the move was because of facial recognition’s use in racial profiling and mass surveillance. In a special extended interview, listen to Ruha Benjamin and Deborah Raji discuss practical steps for developing artificial intelligence technologies in a way that leads to more equity and equal justice-whether it’s tech companies being ready to slow down, or government standards that take racial justice into account.Įarlier this month, three major tech companies publicly distanced themselves from the facial recognition tools used by police: IBM said they would stop all such research, while Amazon and Microsoft said they would push pause on any plans to give facial recognition technology to domestic law enforcement.