What if there were an easy way for police to locate suspects?

Would law enforcement find this valuable?

These are questions one company asked when they created an innovative solution for identifying people using AI.

Clearview AI has amassed a database of nearly 3 billion photographs from the Internet. The database is almost seven times bigger than that of the FBI, and Clearview’s technology allows for almost instant identification of anyone in its database with just a simple face scan. The company says that all of its photos are obtained from sites where users have shared them publicly.

According to various sources, hundreds of companies,

including 600 law enforcement agencies, are already using Clearview’s face scanning app.¹⁷³ In Indiana, state police officers supposedly used Clearview to identify a shooter who had been captured on cell phone video within 20 minutes.¹⁷⁴ The Raleigh,

North Carolina, police department allegedly paid

$2,500 for a year-long subscription to the database.¹⁷⁵

Others have expressed grave concern about the potential for Clearview’s technology to violate civil rights.

YouTube, LinkedIn, PayPal, Twitter, and Facebook have all sent cease-and-desist letters to prohibit the company from mining images from their sites. In Congress,

Senator Ed Markey sent a letter to Clearview’s founder to demand that the company release certain information. In the letter Markey noted, “The ways in which this technology could be weaponized are vast and disturbing. Using Clearview’s technology, a criminal could easily find out where someone walking down the street lives or works. A foreign adversary could quickly gather information about targeted individuals for blackmail purposes.”¹⁷⁶ Numerous studies have also demonstrated that AI facial recognition technology is significantly affected by racial bias.

Several groups have filed class action lawsuits against Clearview for violation of, for example, state biometrics and computer crimes laws.

Questions

How would you rule if you were a judge deciding whether to continue to allow Clearview technology to remain on the market?

1. I would side with Clearview. If citizens choose to post photographs on the Internet without protecting their security, then Clearview has the right to find and save those photos.

2. I would side with the plaintiffs. Companies do not automatically have the right to obtain photographs from the Internet, and law enforcement agencies should not use technology that has proven bias issues.

3. I’m not sure who is right or wrong. I don’t like the idea of wrongfully identifying and accusing people as criminals, but I also see the potential benefits of such a program for society.

4. Invent other options.