It only takes one picture for Clearview AI to start its search. The interface is simple: all you have to do is take a picture of a face, upload it, and the facial recognition app takes it from there, scanning as many as three billion pictures on the web for matching images. In seconds, it provides the resulting pictures along with links to where they were found.
While Clearview AI might be the most recent development in the industry, facial recognition technology (FRT) isn’t new. It didn’t first show up a month ago when The New York Times reported the capabilities and uses of Clearview. It didn’t begin back in 2016, when Clearview was first developed.
It’s an incredibly useful piece of software. Finding someone’s identity, who he’s affiliated with, and where he’s present online has never been so easy. For law enforcement, the app has been a boon. According to the New York Times, police at a station in Clifton, New Jersey said the app was “able to identify a suspect in a matter of seconds.”
In fact, facial recognition software has been around for almost 20 years, growing in proficiency and proliferation. Chainalysis, Affectiva, FaceFirst, Sensory Inc., and TrueFace.Ai, to name a few, are all U.S.-based software companies working on developing facial recognition technology. And it’s being rapidly implemented.
Here’s the simple truth: facial recognition is powerful and useful. It works. And if the conversation were to stop there, its rapid progress might seem like an inherently good thing. But here’s another reality: the development and the uses of this technology are growing faster than the laws defining its proper use. To many, that’s a serious concern.
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