Clearview AI, a North American company specializing in facial recognition, has begun supplying its software to Ukrainian authorities. This would be used to identify people, but also to fight against misinformation.
Clearview AI has found a promising new theater of use. Since Saturday March 12, 2022, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has started using facial recognition technology from Clearview AI, the controversial American start-up founded by billionaire Peter Thiel. The company’s technology should enable the identification of Ukrainian refugees, Russian soldiers or any persons of interest at checkpoints, but also to fight misinformation and identify the dead.
Ukraine obviously received free access to Clearview AI’s face search engine. The company said it did not offer that same privilege to Russia and that it would have more than 2 billion images from Russian social media service VKontakte, out of a database of more than 10 billion. pictures in total.
“This database can help Ukraine identify the dead more easily than trying to match fingerprints, and works even if there is facial damage”, said Hoan Ton-That, the managing director of Clearview. He also said facial recognition technology could be used to reunite separated refugees with their families, identify Russian agents and help the government debunk fake war-related social media posts.
A tool already banned in some countries
The tool is often decried, Ton-That was cautious, explaining that it should never be used as the sole source of identification and that he would not want the technology to be used in violation of the Conventions of Geneva and their legal standards for humanitarian treatment during war. “Like other users, those in Ukraine receive training and must enter a case number and reason for a search before queries”he explained.
But here as elsewhere, the use of Clearview AI is legitimately debated. “Once you bring these systems and associated databases into a warzone, you have no control over how they will be used and misused”confessed Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project quoted by Reuters.
Clearview AI mainly equips law enforcement in the United States where more than 2400 police offices would make regular use of it. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have also banned its use on their territory. In France, the Cnil came forward in December 2021, demanding that the company cease all collection and use of data from French people to feed its facial recognition software.