‘By Africans, for Africans’: Female entrepreneur pioneers facial recognition tech

From targeting protesters in India to incorrectly identifying African Americans as criminals, campaigners warn that AI facial recognition technology can be dangerous both when it works well and when it works badly. — TNS

JOHANNESBURG: Charlette N’Guessan Desiree loved maths and science as a student in Ivory Coast, but never imagined she would one day use her problem-solving savvy to develop facial recognition technology more adept at identifying and verifying African faces.

Her company, BACE Group, hopes its artificial intelligence (AI) software will be used across the continent – helping universities to verify students for financial services, banks to sign up new clients and security firms to fight crime.