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Ukraine has started using Clearview AI’s facial recognition during war

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A reinforcement force of soldiers arrives to strengthen one final checkpoint before the frontlines. This is where Ukrainian forces confront invading Russian forces close to Brovary, Ukraine on Tuesday, March 8th 2022.

Marcus Yam | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Clearview AI’s facial recognition software was used by the Ukrainian defense ministry. The chief executive at Clearview AI told Reuters that the U.S. company offered the technology to identify and combat Russian terrorists, misinformation, as well as identifying the dead.

Clearview AI’s search engine for faces is now available to Ukraine free of charge. This allows authorities to potentially screen people at checkpoints and allow them to vet those who are interested, said Lee Wolosky (an advisor to Clearview, and former diplomat under the U.S. presidents Barack Obama, and Joe Biden).

According to Reuters, the plans were formed after Russia invaded Ukraine. Clearview’s Chief Executive Hoan To-That also sent a note to Kyiv in which he offered assistance.

Clearview claimed it hadn’t offered Russia the technology, calling its actions in Ukraine a special operation.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine did not respond to inquiries for comment. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation previously stated that the ministry was open to receiving offers from U.S.-based AI companies like Clearview. Numerous Western companies have offered to support Ukraine by providing cybersecurity tools, internet hardware and other support.

Clearview’s founder, David Clearview, stated that his company had over 2 billion images of VKontakte in Russia at its disposal. This is out of an entire database with more than 10 billion photos.

This database will help Ukraine find the deceased more quickly than matching fingerprints. It also works regardless of facial damage. Ton-That said. The research U.S. Department of Energy found decomposition reduced the technology’s effectiveness while a paper from a 2021 conference showed promising results.

In Ton-That’s letter, Ton-That stated Clearview’s technology could also be used to reunite families separated from their loved ones, identify Russian agents and aid the government in debunking false social media posts related the war.

Ton-That did not specify the exact reason why Ukraine’s defense minister is using this technology. Wolosky also stated that Clearview is likely to be used by other sections of Ukraine’s government over the following days.

Wolosky stated that Clearview now has a more complete dataset than PimEyes’, which is a public image search engine people use to find individuals in war photographs. VKontakte didn’t immediately reply to my request for comment. U.S. social networking company Facebook is now MetaClearview was compelled to stop taking her data.

One critic claims that facial recognition can misidentify individuals at battle checkpoints. According to Albert Fox Cahn (executive director, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, New York), a mismatch in facial recognition could result in civilian death, as has happened with unfair police arrests.

He said that technology, even well intentioned, will eventually backfire and cause harm to the people they were supposed to be helping.

Ton-That stated that Clearview shouldn’t be used as the only source of identification, and that the technology should not be misused in violation the Geneva Conventions. These conventions established legal guidelines for humanitarian care during war.

As with other users, the Ukrainians are being trained and must enter a case number as well as the reason to search.

Clearview is a U.S.-based company that sells to law enforcement. It has been sued in the United States for violating U.S. privacy rights, allegedly by downloading images from the internet. Clearview maintains that its data collection process is identical to Google search. Still, many countries have declared its activities illegal including Australia and the United Kingdom.

Cahn said that identifying the dead is the most dangerous method of using the technology in war. However, he stated that once you bring these systems and associated databases into a war zone you don’t have any control over its use and misuse.

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