Facial recognition comes with both positive and negative impacts on a variety of topics. Topics such as security, accessibility, privacy, and so on. A lot of people have their own opinions on automated facial recognition depending on them or a certain situation. I will be going over how facial recognition affects Consequentialism, Deontology, and Virtuism along with some comparison to other countries and how it affects their freedom and privacy.
Before we begin, we must get a better understanding of facial recognition how it works, what’s it used for, and so on.
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Facial recognition is a system that identifies a person through digital pre-taken photos of a person’s facial features which are then stored within a database. Facial recognition is a biometric in Artificial Intelligence, like other biometrics such as fingerprint and eye iris recognition. But that said, facial recognition is less accurate than fingerprint and iris recognition, and facial detection can easily be mistaken. Facial recognition focuses on a person’s bone structure, eyes, lips, nose, and face shape. So why could this be easily mistaken and why is fingerprint and iris detection more reliable?
The fingerprint and iris method require so little focus and data compared to the facial method. But also, is less likely to be manipulated. Iris and fingerprint detection cannot be stolen from a person’s identity, unlike the facial. For example, these biometrics are used to keep a person’s data safe, so in a scenario where 2 twins which of course look the same, would have access to each other’s data as they both have the same facial features. Unlike the other 2 methods, fingerprint and iris are always unique and they cannot be duplicated.
We now have a better understanding of how it works and what it’s used for and it does come with positive and negative impacts. We just went over on how it affects the person's security of data but now we will look into how it affects other countries. How does it affect their civilization, physically and mentally, and how do the world leaders feel about it?
After doing some research, I came across an official declaration by Xi Jinping, president of China, who has plans to install over 200 million CCTV cameras across China, hiding every corner on every street. He plans to do this to gain better control in society and create a prosperous civilization, and he truly believes it will be the “hope for the country’s future. It is also the hope of the whole Chinese nation”.
Xi Jingping’s plan is called “social credit” which will be known as the first-ever digital dictatorship and will be fully operational in 2020. It is to control its 1.4 billion citizens and to create a civil civilization. The “social credit” system is a system that rates its civilians a score out of 800 and depending on the score, it will give the high scorers privileges such as VIP treatment at airports and hotels, opportunities at the best jobs and universities, and discounts. The low scorers, on the other hand, can be “locked out of society” and banned from holidays and travel as they do not appear to be a loyal Chinese citizen and the government considers this as punishment for their actions. Each camera will have “built-in facial recognition, body scanning, and geo-tracking to cast a constant gaze over every citizen”. Some people in China have come to terms with the future of AI in China as China aims to be the world leader in artificial intelligence.
How does it work you may ask? Well, the system makes every judgment upon the citizen's actions, whether it’s right or wrong. For example, people will go into the shop and buy their groceries. If the person buys alcohol, they get points taken off them as the system assumes the person is an alcoholic but if the system captures a person buying diapers, they get points added onto their score as they assume they have a baby to look out for meaning the citizen is responsible. Each action has some sort of psychological program making the system advanced. But is it right? For all we know, people could be faking themselves by buying healthy foods and diapers just to gain a high score.
This plan evades people’s privacy and having the constant feeling of being watched will make people feel like they are in prison. But thinking about it does bring a lot more safety in the country as crimes would be expected to be low. This concept brings positive and negative effects on China, so it depends on how the citizens feel. The government, on the other hand, feels like the system is a great investment as it would gain a lot more power and control.
Having the “social credit” operating could affect us globally, such as other nations owning the system for them to gain power and control or having China be the world leader in AI. The consequences a person makes with this new AI could affect them financially, mentally, and physically and that could break society.
Of course, having AI to judge every action will not always be correct. For example, what if people were to buy alcohol to celebrate someone’s birthday or event but due to AI thinking alcohol is a bad influence, they would take away points as they think they are alcoholics? AI also can’t read emotion, leading to more misjudged situations.
A lot of people in China aim to have a high moral life. They follow the law; follow the rules and I believe that no Chinese citizen will steal somebody’s identity. Currently right now, there seem to be issues in Hong Kong where the government and the Hong Kong police force are beating and arresting citizens due to them being part of a protest. I’m sure that this issue will be resolved before Xi Jinping’s plan. Speaking about the situation in Hong Kong, I was just thinking of a scenario where this issue is happening while the “social credit” is operating. It made me question if the digital dictator would judge police officers’ actions and if so, would their privileges be taken from them?
Conclusion
In my opinion, I believe that facial recognition is a good thing for security and accessibility but when it comes to China’s digital dictatorship, I disagree with the use of facial recognition to decide a person’s fate in society. Making artificial intelligence a ruler of people’s privileges sounds insane, it could break people's lives. This, in my opinion, will steal away people’s freedom and privacy and could break civilization.
Table of References
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278
- https://www.howtogeek.com/427897/how-does-facial-recognition-work/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/08/19/facial-recognition-technology-here-are-the-important-pros-and-cons/#78c2437e14d1
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