IBM and Amazon will stop selling facial recognition technology over racial bias concerns

This appeared in The Millennial Source

In the midst of nationwide protests around police violence towards black Americans, two tech giants have announced that they will no longer sell facial recognition technology to law enforcement after repeated calls from privacy and civil rights groups alleging that the technology disproportionately affects darker skinned individuals and contributes to racial profiling.

IBM’s CEO, Arvind Krishna, announced on June 8 that the company would no longer be developing facial recognition technology, stating in a letter to Congress that “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.”

Krishna went on to say that “Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that can help law enforcement keep citizens safe. But vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularity when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported.”