Clearview Offers Facial Recognition Tech To Help Ukraine Identify Casualties

Clearview AI has revealed that it has offered its facial recognition services to Ukraine in hopes of assisting the country in identifying invading soldiers or casualties from the war.

At no cost, Ukraine will be able to use the software’s search engine to scan faces, and may employ the technology at checkpoints and other pertinent places to uncover people of interest.

According to Reuters, Clearview’s CEO Hoan Ton-That had sent a letter to Kyiv offering his assistance shortly after the nation was formally invaded by Russia.

At the moment, it appears the database consists of over 10 billion images, two billion of which are part of Russian social media platform Vkontakte.

The company points out that facial recognition could be a more useful way to identify casualties of the war, as opposed to time-consuming methods such as fingerprinting or dental matches. 

However, some critics have warned that the technology could inadvertently misidentify individuals, which could even lead to wrongful arrests. 

Ton-That stresses that the software should never be used as the sole source of identification, and emphasizes that he wouldn’t want it to go against the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions. 

[via Reuters and Engadget, cover image via Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com]