admin Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief counsel, declared the decision and called on Congress to control the technology during a Washington Post video event on Thursday.
Microsoft says it won’t sell its facial recognition software to police, after similar moves by Amazon and IBM.
Microsoft’s president and chief counsel, Brad Smith, announced the decision and called on Congress to regulate the technology during a Washington Post video event on Thursday.
Smith told, “We’ve decided we will not sell facial recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights that will govern this technology.”
These tech giants are stepping back from law-enforcement use of systems that have faced criticism for wrongly identifying people with darker skin. Ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd have emphasized care on racial injustice in the U.S. and how police use technology to track people.
Though, all three companies are known for their work in developing AI, including face recognition software, no one in selling such technology to police. Microsoft currently doesn’t sell its face recognition software to any U.S. police departments, stated Smith Thursday.
He didn’t say if that includes federal law enforcement agencies or police forces outside the U.S. Several other companies that are not famous dominate the market for government facial recognition contracts in the U.S., including Tokyo-based NEC and the European companies Idemia and Gemalto. If all of the responsible companies in the country cede this market to those that are not prepared to take a stand, we won’t necessarily serve the national interest or the lives of the black and African American people of this nation well,” Smith stated. “We need Congress to act, not just tech companies alone.
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