Understanding Face Recognition and Charting a Path Forward

Understanding Face Recognition and Charting a Path Forward

By Duane Blackburn

Face recognition is a powerful tool — it supports access controls & terrorist identification, as well as combats child sex trafficking and underage pornography. But, as with many emerging technologies, there’s also a potential to misuse face recognition, which could affect our civil liberties. How can we find a way to benefit from face recognition, while also ensuring that it’s not being misused? That’s easier said than done, and requires an accurate comprehension of its capabilities and potential issues. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misunderstanding within the nation’s current discourse.

The nation needs to better understand face recognition in a technically accurate, unbiased, and rhetoric-free manner.  Only then will we be able to hold proper deliberations to ensure that we can continue benefiting from the technology while also ensuring that it is not being misused. As a first step, I penned this OpEd to tackle a few of the controversial & misunderstood factors around face recognition — like the accuracy and “bias” of the technology. I also look at finding a way forward that benefits and protects everyone.

— Duane Blackburn

This post originally appeared here


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