At the beginning of this year, alarm bells began to sound over the growing use of facial recognition technology. One company, Clearview, was revealed to have assembled a searchable database of three billion images collected from the internet, and was selling access to law enforcement agencies.
In a test I ran, it unearthed photographs I'd never seen before, including one of me with people I don't even remember meeting
Few of us had seen it in action, as it was only available to organisations willing to pay for it. Its effect on the real world, and the dangers of its flaws, were a mere possibility being highlighted by privacy campaigners.
Last week, that changed. A new facial recognition search engine, PimEyes, now gives anyone with internet access a freely accessible demonstration. Upload a photograph of someone, and it will show you all the others of that person in its database. Pay $10 (Dh37), and one can access links to pages of the photos. It has never been easier to put a name to a face.
Meanwhile, two companies working at the forefront of facial recognition – Amazon and IBM – have publicly stated their concerns over misuse of the technology. Amazon banned use of its software by law enforcement for a year, while IBM has backed out of the game completely.
At first glance, PimEyes seems innocuous enough. Uploading a photo of yourself returns other photos of you from its database. (Unlike Clearview, it does not show photos from major social media websites, most notably Facebook.) The results page looks a little like a Google image search for your own name. But crucially, even without a name, it finds you with unsettling accuracy. In a test I ran, it unearthed photographs I had never seen before, including one of me with people I don’t even remember meeting. The AI memory of me is better than mine – and accessible to anyone with a photograph of my face.
PimEyes is evidently the little brother of more comprehensive services operated by Clearview or Amazon. But it provides a clear illustration of not only how the technology could be misused, but also the lack of transparency over its development. The photos in its database are publicly available on the web, but there is concern their surreptitious collection has weaponised them.
When Clearview was challenged on this by the American Civil Liberties Union, company lawyer Tor Ekeland replied: “Clearview AI is a search engine that uses only publicly available images … It is absurd that the ACLU wants to censor which search engines people can use. The First Amendment forbids this.”
With the technology growing powerful, real-time facial recognition – the ability of a camera to register a face and match it to an identity – has become a reality, almost under the radar. Amazon and IBM are household names, but other companies jostling for pole position in this space are not.
Companies with large ongoing surveillance contracts include Idemia (France), Tech5 (Switzerland) and AllGoVision (India). In a recent interview, ACLU lawyer Matt Cagle expressed concern over this. “The public is largely in the dark about the state of the surveillance vendor market,” he said. “You have corporate entities making policy decisions without democratic transparency.”
On one hand, there is growing concern about the threat posed to our privacy by a new and awesome technology. On the other, there is the threat of too much trust being placed in it by law enforcement, such that its inaccuracies and biases – particularly against people of colour – result in miscarriages of justice.
Facial recognition systems have been predominantly trained on white male faces, after all. One study last year found that Amazon Rekognition had an accuracy of only 68.6 per cent when identifying faces of women of colour. It may be no coincidence that Amazon and IBM have backtracked in the same month dominated by the Black Lives Matter protests in the US and around the world.
Amazon has been selling Rekognition to law enforcement since at least 2018, but now it advocates “stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology”.
IBM’s chief executive Arvind Krishna also emphatically rejects the technology that his own company spent years developing. “IBM no longer offers general purpose facial recognition or analysis software,” he said.
“[It] 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.”
Critics have pointed out that IBM was trailing its competitors and may have been seeking an exit from the space anyway, but it is still a powerful warning either way.
It is not clear whether the facial recognition juggernaut can be halted. It is not even known if cease and desist orders issued by the likes of Facebook to prevent image collection are having any effect. Human rights organisations continue to bring legal challenges. But the technology's implications are now becoming clearer to the public, and its use is posing a growing ethical question for businesses and governments alike.
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
The%20specs
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
What is the Supreme Petroleum Council?
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
More coverage from the Future Forum
The%20specs
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Results
3pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,000m; Winner: Dhafra, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
3.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Al Ajayib, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel
4pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Ashtr, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Majed Al Jahouri
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Falcon Claws, Szczepan Mazur, Doug Watson
5pm: Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Cup – Prestige Handicap (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Al Mufham SB, Al Moatasem Al Balushi, Badar Al Hajri
5.30pm: Sharjah Marathon – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 2,700m; Winner: Asraa Min Al Talqa, Al Moatasem Al Balushi, Helal Al Alawi
What's in the deal?
Agreement aims to boost trade by £25.5bn a year in the long run, compared with a total of £42.6bn in 2024
India will slash levies on medical devices, machinery, cosmetics, soft drinks and lamb.
India will also cut automotive tariffs to 10% under a quota from over 100% currently.
Indian employees in the UK will receive three years exemption from social security payments
India expects 99% of exports to benefit from zero duty, raising opportunities for textiles, marine products, footwear and jewellery
The specs: 2019 Lincoln MKC
Price, base / as tested: Dh169,995 / Dh192,045
Engine: Turbocharged, 2.0-litre, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 253hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 389Nm @ 2,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.7L / 100km
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
RESULTS
Men
1 Marius Kipserem (KEN) 2:04:04
2 Abraham Kiptum (KEN) 2:04:16
3 Dejene Debela Gonfra (ETH) 2:07:06
4 Thomas Rono (KEN) 2:07:12
5 Stanley Biwott (KEN) 2:09:18
Women
1 Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) 2:20:16
2 Eunice Chumba (BRN) 2:20:54
3 Gelete Burka (ETH) 2:24:07
4 Chaltu Tafa (ETH) 2:25:09
5 Caroline Kilel (KEN) 2:29:14
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
MATCH INFO:
Second Test
Pakistan v Australia, Tuesday-Saturday, 10am daily at Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Entrance is free
Company profile
Company name: Nestrom
Started: 2017
Co-founders: Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Shalabi
Based: Jordan
Sector: Technology
Initial investment: Close to $100,000
Investors: Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Agrimatico, Techstars and some angel investors
Honeymoonish
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