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The US Air Force plans to keep airports safer with the help of facial recognition startup Clearview AI.
This Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Clearview a $49,847 prize for researching augmented reality glasses that can scan people’s faces to aid security at bases.
Lab spokesman Brian Ripple described the study as a three-month study aimed at understanding the “scientific and technical benefit and feasibility” of using such glasses for facial recognition.
“No glasses or units are being delivered under this contract,” Mr. Ripple said on Thursday.
In other words, the lab is paying for the glasses to be developed, but not yet buying them. Mr. Ripple provided a “one-page overview from the company” titled “Clearview AI: Augmented Reality Glasses to Keep Bases and Flight Lines Safe.” In the brochure, he said the product “saves lives”, “saves time” and “improves health” by increasing social distancing and freeing officers to take their guns.
New York-based Clearview AI has been the target of international investigations and lawsuits as it scraped billions of photos from the public internet to build it. facial recognition tool used by law enforcement. Hundreds of federal agencies and local police departments have used Clearview’s technology.
The company describes its software as ideal not for surveillance, but for investigations that take place after a crime has been committed, but it has experimented with real-time facial recognition.
In January 2020, a technologist from The Times found code in the company’s app that indicates it can be paired with augmented reality glasses. At the time, Hoan Ton-That, CEO of Clearview AI, admitted that he had designed a prototype, but said the company did not plan to launch it.
“We are constantly researching and developing new technologies, processes and platforms to meet current and future security challenges, and we look forward to opportunities that will bring us together with the Air Force in this area,” Ton-That said. The contract went public. “Once implemented, we believe this technology will be a perfect fit for a multitude of security situations.”
Last month, Mr. Ton-Bu, a public letter His company won’t use its technology in a “real-time way,” but equipping the glasses with technology to recognize faces seems to fit that bill.
In a phone call, Mr. Ton-That said Clearview’s database of 10 billion photos “will not be used for any real-time surveillance” and that any augmented reality glasses will instead “rely on limited datasets—extraordinary guarantees, for example, missing children.” or related persons.”
The Air Force contract was signed in November, but only made public on Thursday. It was highlighted first excitement By Jack Poulson, executive director of Tech Inquiry, a nonprofit that tracks government surveillance technology purchases.
The Air Force previously awarded Clearview AI $50,000 in December 2019 for research and development. BuzzFeed News He previously reported that the Air Force is one of many divisions within federal agencies that are experimenting with the company’s facial recognition software.
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