Why Facial Recongition Should Be Banned
Hello welcome to the robot crime blog written by me, Robert Kiesling, a criminal trial lawyer out of Austin TX. This is blog 4. Last time I blogged I was talking about robot brothels and I told you our upcoming episode would be facial recognition. But then I had sooo many requests to see if I could find out anything on AI and the Corona Virus that I did another episode out of order. Now, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. Ha Ha… But seriously, if this blog post doesn’t create some kind of passion in you to create a debate or tell people about the terrifying use of facial recognition (FR), I don't know what episode will. Here we go…
Let me give you a scenario and see if you can guess if this is now, the future or some sci-fi movie… a man just finishes a jog. His heart rate is elevated and he stops at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change to cross. He looks both ways, impatient, it’s clear and he decides cross before the light turns. After he jaywalks to the other side - his face is displayed on a gigantic billboard like you'd see in time square. Next to it, there’s this kind of matrix code on the screen right next to his face – calculating. Why? Because on the street there's this police officer that has futuristic glasses looking right at our runner. These glasses are designed for one purpose, to run faces through databases of mug shots in real-time. And it turns out that his face is similar to another gentleman's face that committed a felony crime who also has outstanding warrants.
Suddenly our runner’s phone alerts, and it reads, “Stay where you are. You've committed a crime. Authorities are on their way. Do not resist arrest.” Then all around him, phones alert the pedestrians that they are standing next to a dangerous criminal. They scatter like roaches. His family is then notified, his friends are notified that he's committed this felony crime; his employment’s notified that he's committed this crime. His landlord is notified that he's committed this crime. All transportation authorities are notified that he’s committed this crime. He now has nowhere to go. Authorities pick him up. They arrest him and because of the nature of the charge, he is not eligible for bail. This leads to a downward spiral he can’t recover from. His employer immediately suspends him without pay for a crime he’s accused of – NOT CONVICTED of; the people that affiliated with him won’t anymore because they don’t want to get in trouble – there’s a law makes it illegal for them to associate with known criminals. His landlord doesn't want this dangerous person in the community - so he gets booted out by the landlord - or he can't pay rent because he can't make bail to get out to pay the rent.
Two months go by and then the prosecutor in charge of his case tells him they’ve made a mistake He’s not the man they were looking for. The facial recognition misidentified him.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Runner. Well, hey, good luck with your life. You’re free to go. Here’s a paper that exonerates you.” The Prosecutor says and then pats him on the shoulder with an unsympathetic smile.
The runner heads over to his employer and proves that he didn’t do it. You think that his employer gave him his job back? Of course not. They replaced him.
Now, on top of this nightmare scenario, what if he had to have plead guilty just to get out of prison because that was his fastest way out – because he couldn’t make bail – if one was even issued. Folks, it happens every day - every day. His life is ruined. You think his friends are going to take a chance and associate with him? Probably not. Who will hire him? Who will let him rent from them, even after what’s happened? How long does it take the transit authority to clear him? How will he travel? If there’s a process for all this, it costs money. How can he afford it?
This is happening right now over in China - but one part that isn't just over in China and is also in the United States are the private companies that are behind this FR hardware/software (most of them, anyway). This is the social credit score system coming to America.
I've personally represented clients, even recently, that have been arrested for a charge in the U.S.A., where the employers are notified right away about their arrest. Then the company’s HR let's go of the accused just based on the mere accusation – all without pay or they’ve actually fired them outright. That’s a scary trend considering one of my clients had only a class ‘c’ civil infraction charge. And he was ultimately fired even after I cleared him, case dismissed within days of the charges being filed. This is a scary trend. Guilty until proven innocent. I don’t think that’s fair. Do you? Let’s keep the debate going. Shall we?
This leads me to my earlier point. The problem I have with these tech companies – most from the United States – that are helping China create this Orwellian state is: if they don't worry about the rights of the Chinese people – you think they worry about stomping on our constitutional rights? The answer is no. This is creating a massive divide. Between private rights under technocracy and our rights under the constitution of the United States. What do I mean? Technocracy is going above the law; for example, you have a virtual prison because of the amount of information that these private companies are making available to employers about their employees - both private and public – and this information is almost in real-time/immediately. This is a de facto, a virtual prison where the accused are convicted by society before they ever see a day in the courtroom. This needs to change. There has to be some kind of protocols, legislators need to be aware of it - and I think that with how much this could affect someone’s life (within seconds) it's a major trend that the public needs to be aware of.
Here’s another example of FR failing miserably. True story. A group of legislators agreed to be a part of its test-run. They allowed this FR company to use their faces in their facial recognition algorithm. Turns out – of 25,000 mugshots, they were all labeled as criminals. Misidentified by the facial recognition software. Concerned yet?
What about law enforcement? In this brave new world – happening right now – they are using this facial recognition software unregulated. We are going to save this discussion for another blog. Note, it’s a scary fact to know that over 90% of the people Homeland Security scans at airports are scanned through FR. What’s that mean? That means over 90% of the people in the United States are in a facial recognition database. I’m running short on time. I’ll have to end the blog here. Here’s my quote of the day. “The hardest thing to open is a closed mind.” – from Ahmed Kathrada. And if Skynet does not take over by my next blog, I will talk to you then…