Black teen misidentified by facial recognition sparks fears of machine-driven segregation
The software’s dangers go beyond wrongful arrests
Not even skating is safe from facial recognition
When Robinson tried to enter the roller skating rink, staff stopped her because, they said, she had previously been involved in a fight at the venue. But the teenager had never even been there before.
The facial recognition system had incorrectly matched her face to another person.
“To me, it’s basically racial profiling,” her mother, Juliea Robinson,told Fox 2 Detroit. “You’re just saying every young Black, brown girl with glasses fits the profile and that’s not right.”
In a statement given to the TV channel, the rink said one of its managers had asked Juliea to call back sometime during the week:
The girl’s parents said they’re considering legal action against the rink.
Sadly, we shouldn’t be surprised
Facial recognition is notoriously prone to errors and biases.Numerousstudieshave demonstrated that the software discriminates on race and gender, with Black womenparticularly vulnerableto the biases.
The errors have already led towrongful arrests. But experts warn that the software is also propagating segregation.
“When we say this is a civil rights issue it goes beyond false arrests, it’s about who gets to access public spaces in a world of machine-driven segregation,”tweetedÁngel Díaz, a counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center.
If algorithms are determining who can go where, they’ll inevitably restrict the rights of people that the software’s biased against. It’s another good reason toban the use of facial recognitionin public spaces.
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Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.
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