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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 28 december 2019
Federal study finds race, gender affect face-scanning tech

By MATT O'BRIEN software doesn’t work
A study by a U.S. agency with NIST’s testing proce-
has found that facial rec- dures, though the agency
ognition technology often is in talks with the company
performs unevenly based about how to test its algo-
on a person’s race, gender rithms in the future.
or age. The agency’s report cred-
But the nuanced report its two widely-cited studies
published Thursday is un- of facial recognition bias
likely to allay the concerns by Massachusetts Institute
of critics who worry about of Technology researchers
bias in face-scanning ap- for serving as a “cautionary
plications that are increas- tale” about uneven results
ingly being adopted by across race and gender
law enforcement, airports boundaries, though it also
and a variety of businesses. suggests they sowed public
The National Institute of confusion in the way they
Standards and Technology sought to measure perfor-
has been studying facial mance.
recognition for nearly two Joy Buolamwini, who led
decades, but this is the first those studies and has
time it has investigated de- urged a halt to the tech-
mographic differences in nology’s proliferation, said
how face-scanning algo- in an email Thursday that
rithms are able to identify NIST’s study is “a sobering
people. reminder that facial recog-
The study was prompted in nition technology has con-
part by growing concern sequential technical limita-
among lawmakers and tions.”
privacy advocates that bi- “While some biometric re-
ased results in commercial searchers and vendors
face recognition software have attempted to claim
could entrench racial dis- algorithmic bias is not an is-
crimination in the criminal sue or has been overcome,
justice system and else- this study provides a com-
where. prehensive rebuttal,” she
The report cautions against wrote.
“incomplete” previous re- She was echoed by the
search alleging biased fa- In this Dec. 4, 2019, file photo commuters pass through the World Trade Center in New York. American Civil Liberties
cial recognition that has Associated Press Union, which in a statement
alarmed the public, but Thursday said that govern-
also confirms similar trends er of NIST’s research group ware providers that volun- search, along with dozens ment agencies like the FBI
showing higher error rates that studies biometric tech- tarily submitted their tech- of lesser-known video sur- and U.S. Customs and Bor-
for women, the youngest nology. “The main mes- nology for review. It ran veillance providers and nu- der Protection should take
and oldest people, and for sage is don’t try to general- those algorithms on millions merous China-based com- heed of the report and halt
certain racial groups de- ize the results across all the of FBI mugshots, visa ap- panies such as SenseTime, their deployment of face-
pending on which image technology. Know your use plication photos and other Hikvision and Tencent. Am- scanning software.
database or software is be- case, the algorithm that’s government-held portrait azon, which markets face- “Even government sci-
ing used. being used.” images such as those taken scanning software to U.S. entists are now confirm-
“There is a wide range of NIST, which is a part of the at border crossings. police agencies, did not ing that this surveillance
performance and there’s Commerce Department, Microsoft was among the participate. technology is flawed and
certainly work to be done,” tested the algorithms of 99 major tech companies Watson said that’s because biased,” said ACLU policy
said Craig Watson, manag- mostly commercial soft- that participated in the re- Amazon’s cloud-based analyst Jay Stanley.q

China to complete Beidou competitor to GPS with new launches

BEIJING (AP) — China said That was up from 19 the system will be fully complet- world, the Beidou system 5G data processing — is a
Friday its Beidou Navigation year before, making it one ed," Ran said. will always adhere to the major government priority.
Satellite System that emu- of rising space power Chi- The latest launches mark development concept of In 2003, China became
lates the U.S. Global Posi- na's most complex projects. the third iteration of Bei- 'China's Beidou, the world's just the third country to
tioning System will be com- Ran described the system at dou, meaning "Big Dipper," Beidou, and the first-class independently launch a
peted with the launch of its a rare news conference as the first of which was de- Beidou,' serving the world manned space mission
final two satellites in the first having "high performance commissioned in 2012. Fu- and benefiting mankind," and has since constructed
half of next year. indicators, new technology ture plans call for a smarter, Ran said. an experimental space sta-
Project director Ran systems, high localization, more accessible and more China's space program has tion and sent up a pair of
Chengqi told reporters that mass production network- integrated system with Bei- developed rapidly along rovers to the surface of the
the core of the positioning ing and a wide range of us- dou at its core, to come all lines over the past two moon. Future plans call for
system was completed this ers." "Before June 2020, we online by 2035, Ran said. decades and developing a fully-functioning perma-
month with the launch ad- plan to launch two more "As a major space infra- independent high-tech nent space station, a mis-
ditional satellites bringing its satellites into geostation- structure for China to pro- capabilities — and even sion to mars and a possible
total constellation to 24. ary orbit and the Beidou-3 vide public services to the dominating in fields such as crewed flight to the moon.