Recently, Microsoft without notifying the users deleted more than 10 million images of around a thousand people from its facial recognition database. The deletion process mainly removed the images that belonged to the celebrities or rather person who are well recognized. This news went viral after the giant tech decided to distance itself from this technology.
Celebrities have become the most important personals whose images are acquired for testing and training computers the ability to identify images. Thus, these images are the most widely available database worldwide kudos to facial recognition tools.
Many facial recognition algorithms in the world use MS Celeb to train itself. Microsoft decided to withdraw this Facial Recognition App. Hence, in this AI emerging market this sudden decision received attention from many researchers as well as data scientists. But, every action comes with justifiable reasons.
Microsoft’s Control on Facial Recognition Databases
Data Privacy experts and various other organizations criticized facial recognition software for the past two years. They found that these databases have the chance to bypass the law enforcement agencies.
Also, through military researchers, it was determined that anyone can use Microsoft’s Facial Recognition Dataset to train and develop their own face recognition software.
This is the prime reason why Microsoft took the decision to regulate and control the facial recognition technology. However, there is one more reason behind the abrupt restriction of this database.
A report in The Financial Times did not cover the fact that individuals who used MS Celeb were not only celebrities. They were also writers, journalists, activists, and authors and common people as well. Also, hardly users tried to contact the database to use or to give their consent.
It seems like Microsoft utilized the web for pictures by using Creative Commons license and thus was adding images to the database without any approval or any consent.
As per Microsoft, the main intention behind the database was mainly for academic purposes. However, it was later noted that an ex-employee of Microsoft used this technology for creating the face recognition software.
Thus, getting rid of MS Celeb became very much essential for the company. So, Microsoft intended to eliminate all the doubts and took down the database through internal procedures.
Controlling Measures for Facial Recognition Technology
MS Celeb facial recognition database is now known to be a part of dangerous technology. People got the freedom to use this tool in whatever way they intend to.
The actual intention of making the database was for an academic purpose to train machines, add captions to images and to understand news videos.
But giants such as IBM and Panasonic took hold of this facial recognition database in a different way. They used MS Celeb for AI purposes, spotting an image in the public for legal authorities.
AI is the most talked-about evolution in technology. It is so powerful that it can control apps and this trend is continuously increasing.
For example, a few years back AI-empowered algorithms helped social media. But now we can see Facebook uses this technology for analyzing the facial images of people.
In 2019 and 2020, we hope to gain a facial recognition technology which incorporates safety as well as privacy factors. Already San Francisco became the first city in the world to empower the blooming technology along with government regulations.
Few states are now even working on legislation to avoid the usage of facial recognition technology. They also ensure that companies strictly follow the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines to use, store and process any facial recognition data.
Lastly…
Ultimately, it is the sole achievement of the big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon which generates revenue along with the wider acceptance of facial recognition technology in everyday life.
If they find that the price of incorporating such technology is turning out to be very expensive then it may take necessary actions to regulate and control facial recognition technology.
Thus, only the future holds the truth about how important this application will become. And whether the facial recognition database will prove to be a boon or a curse.