IBM announced to end all business related to Facial Recognition services

Arvind Krishna, CEO of the global tech giant IBM has announced to put an end to its facial recognition business worldwide on Monday and also announced to make a call for a “national dialogue” on whether the facial recognition technology to be used or not as reported by CNBC.

In the letter, he also asserted to support for a new bill Justice in Policing Act that was introduced on Monday that aims to reduce police violence and increase accountability.

IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency. We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.

Arvind Krishna, CEO IBM

In the letter, he also notes that “vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularly when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported.”

The company’s facial recognition service does not make much money for the company and it offers almost similar services like Amazon’s controversial Rekognition technology that is being tested by some law enforcement agencies but never made significant performance in the field.

The new bill that IBM support has a large number of supporters in the US House and Senate discusses a variety of issues faced by the Police and the citizens. It also notes the use of body cameras but limits the usage of facial recognition to the body cameras.

It also approves for the use of facial recognition devices but only if they are used as per the protocols developed and listed publicly.

The ACLU, in a statement issued regarding the bill, seemed to concur with its approach: “We need to invest in technologies that can help eliminate the digital divide, not technologies that create a surveillance infrastructure that exacerbates policing abuses and structural racism.”