AI-enabled Facial Recognition: More than just ethics? (Highlights)

Facial recognition technology has been advancing rapidly over the past decade and is starting to be common in more devices, more places and real time. The odds are that facial biometrical information is already being analysed regularly.

While there are numerous positive use cases, facial recognition has been identified by the High Level Expert Group on AI as a critical concern, and in June, the European Commission will put its recently published AI ethical guidelines to a test.

This technology raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human rights protections like human dignity, privacy and non-discrimination. This raises the question whether additional safeguards are needed and how principles of transparency, loyalty and accountability in the use of algorithms can be implemented in future governance models of AI.

EURACTIV organised this stakeholder debate to discuss the responsibility for tech companies that develop these technologies, and the need for thoughtful government regulation, and for the development of norms around acceptable uses of facial recognition technology. 

Questions included: 

- What are the design requirements for a future governance model of AI?

- Are the concerns identified by the HLEG on AI adequately addressed in our legal and privacy frameworks?

- Can practical tools such as the ethical guidance address concerns in full?

- How common and accurate is facial recognition technology?