IBM exits facial recognition business as CEO calls on congress to address racial injustice
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a letter to congress on Monday that his company was getting out of the facial recognition business while also asking for reforms to combat racism.
Facial recognition technology, which has also been employed by companies such as Facebook, has been criticized for exhibiting gender and racial bias.
"IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software. IBM 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, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency," Krishna said in his letter to members of congress. "We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies."
The ethics of using artificial intelligence (AI) for services such as facial recognition has been an ongoing debate for several years. Two years ago, IBM sought to alleviate some of the fear around using AI by launching cloud software designed to identify any bias in artificial intelligence deployments while also recommending fixes.
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