Last November Meta has announced which would have done away with its facial recognition tagging technology. Today Microsoft is also on the same level, aiming to reassure customers. It will gradually retire its facial recognition AI that can detect emotions (and more).
According to the portal Engadget this technology just can't tell if you are sad, happy or angry. With its ability to perfectly identify characteristics such as age, gender and hair, the Redmond giant's artificial intelligence software has raised inevitable (and legitimate) privacy controversies.
The long goodbye
In a post on the blog from Microsoft, I read that new users of the programming framework Microsoft Face they will no longer be able to access its features. What about existing customers? Calmly: they will be able to draw on technology "only" until 30 June 2023.
The decision is part of Microsoft's plan to develop and disseminate artificial intelligence technology. A new "more ethical" strategy that will provide access to facial recognition software only through the proprietary Azure Face API, Computer Vision and Video Indexer platforms.
We will discontinue facial analysis features that claim to determine emotions and identity traits such as gender, age, smile, facial hair, hair and makeup
From the Microsoft release
You call them if you want emotions
Needless to say, you can imagine: access to functions with sensitive attributes opens up a wide range of possibilities for abuse. Selecting people on the basis of these parameters risks subjecting them to prejudice, discrimination or unfair denials of services.
As AI becomes more powerful, and before it becomes sentient (whatever anyone says this is not yet the case) needs attention. It is time for large companies to take steps to ensure that consumer privacy and information are not compromised, and that this technology is not used for malicious purposes.
