Amazon, Microsoft leave many face-recognition queries unanswered

While Microsoft and Amazon received praise for their steps last week, the complicated nature of technology contracts, and the many different levels and types of law enforcement agencies – foreign and domestic, at local, state and national levels – mean there are still many unanswered questions about what the temporary bans cover and how they will be implemented. Both companies have declined to answer these questions. — AFP Relaxnews

Amazon.com Inc last week announced a one-year pause in use by police forces of its artificial intelligence software for recognising faces. The next day, Microsoft Corp said it doesn’t currently sell its similar product to US police departments and won’t do so until the US federal government passes a law regulating its use.

Both steps came amid widespread protests against police brutality and misconduct targeted at Black people – a population on whom facial-recognition software performs poorly, leading to concerns that the technology is another vector for discrimination against people of color by law enforcement.