As technology evolves, it always creates new moral and ethical problems for us.
Key points:
- Facial recognition technology is being trialled in Australian cities and towns
- A US researcher found that darker-skinned faces were more likely to be misidentified
- IBM has pulled out of the facial recognition business due to concerns about the technology
It means we’ll always need people who’ve been trained to think empathetically, laterally, ethically and historically, to civilise our technology.
Take facial recognition systems.
Should we keep rolling out CCTV cameras with facial recognition technology across Australia’s cities and towns?
On one hand, it helps to catch criminals and prevent crime. There’s no doubt about that. But it represents a huge invasion of privacy and comes with obvious human rights implications.
Where’s the data stored? For how long is it stored? Who has access to it?
What are the chances police will end up using the technology to surveil entire crowds at public protests and create a database of protestors?
And consider the technology behind the technology.
