The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy activists are asking Amazon to stop marketing a powerful facial recognition tool to police, saying law enforcement agencies could use the technology to "easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone." The tool, called Rekognition, is already being used by at least one agency -- the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon -- to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail, which is a common use of such technology around the country. But privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing police to identify and track people in real time. The tech giant's entry into the market could vastly accelerate such developments, the privacy advocates fear, with potentially dire consequences for minorities who are already arrested at disproportionate rates, immigrants who may be in the country illegally or political protesters. "People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government," the groups wrote in a letter to Amazon on Tuesday.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos laughs as he talks to the media while touring the new Amazon Spheres during the grand opening at Amazon's Seattle headquarters in Seattle, Washington, U.S., January 29, 2018. Amazon has been selling a facial-recognition system to police, sparking fears that the technology will one day power mass surveillance. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and 35 other advocacy group sent a letter to the company's CEO Jeff Bezos, demanding that he stop providing the technology to law enforcement. The technology, called Amazon Rekognition, can identify people's faces in digital images and video. Police in Oregon and Florida have been using the system to help them solve crimes, but the ACLU argues that it's ripe for abuse.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a fictional topic pitched around sci-fi fanatics. Our world is becoming more and more cohesive with AI. When you call customer service for your mobile related issues and interact with the automated voice, you're being served by AI. When you tell your Google Home, Amazon Echo, or even Siri to play your favorite playlist, you're interacting with AI. This smart technology is more concrete today than it ever was in the past, and the future of AI seems as bright as ever.

Civil liberties advocates are calling on Amazon to cease providing facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. "We demand that Amazon stop powering a government surveillance infrastructure that poses a grave threat to customers and communities across the country", a coalition let by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote in a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. At issue is a tool known as "Rekognition" that allows users to compare anonymous faces against other images to try and establish identity. An explanatory post on Amazon's website notes that it offers "security and surveillance applications" that include "crime prevention" by identifying "persons of interest". According to emails obtained by the ACLU, multiple law enforcement agencies have harnessed the tool in their investigative work.

Scott W. Bauguess is the Acting Director and Chief Economist at the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis ("DERA") from the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). He recently gave a Keynote speech: "The Role of Big Data, Machine Learning, and AI in Assessing Risk: A Regulatory Perspective", that many people missed. In it he covered how the SEC is taking advantage of these technologies, and more importantly where they are not, at least not yet. First, let me agree with Scott W. Bauguess that the use of machine learning has great benefits. We see it with our clients every day.

If you're nervous about the privacy implications of Amazon's camera technology, there might be a good reason for it. The ACLU and a coalition of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon chief Jeff Bezos to stop offering Rekognition facial detection system to government customers after learning that the company is actively helping law enforcement implement the potentially invasive technology. Police in multiple regions have partnered with Amazon on surveillance projects, including an Orlando proof-of-concept that lets Amazon search for "people of interest" through city cameras as well a Washington County, Oregon initiative that lets officers scan people to see if they turn up in a mugshot database. The ACLU also learned that Amazon provided Washington County a roadmap under a non-disclosure agreement, and offered to link the county to other government customers interested in Rekognition, such as a body camera manufacturer. That's particularly problematic when facial recognition on body cameras is illegal in Oregon.

Amazon has been essentially giving away facial recognition tools to law enforcement agencies in Oregon and Orlando, according to documents obtained by American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, paving the way for a rollout of technology that is causing concern among civil rights groups. Amazon is providing the technology, known as Rekognition, as well as consulting services, according to the documents, which the ACLU obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. A coalition of civil rights groups, in a letter released Tuesday, called on Amazon to stop selling the program to law enforcement because it could lead to the expansion of surveillance of vulnerable communities. "We demand that Amazon stop powering a government surveillance infrastructure that poses a grave threat to customers and communities across the country," the groups wrote in the letter. Amazon spokeswoman Nina Lindsey did not directly address the concerns of civil rights groups. "Amazon requires that customers comply with the law and be responsible when they use AWS services," she said, referring to Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud software division that houses the facial recognition program.

Artificial Intelligence may be pushing the limits of decision making. Banks that want to use AI still have to adhere to several industry specific rules primarily around transparency. Other industries like tech don't have the same hurdles to climb when it comes to regulation around there AI efforts. Rules for banks were put in place to protect poor and minority consumers, including laws which are supposed to ensure the equal treatment of customers. Are black people going to fall further behind in getting approved for loans and credit cards if banks start using AI for lending decisions?

Court records say 20-year-old Jordan Kellogg was sentenced Monday in Douglas County District Court. He'd pleaded no contest to four counts of robbery. Prosecutors dropped three more counts and one of attempted robbery in exchange for Kellogg's pleas.

Sometimes, Google is just a bit too good at carrying out its stated goal to "organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Take search suggestions, the helpful feature that sees Google autocomplete phrases typed into its search engine. Type "How can I cook macaroni ..." and the site will add "cheese" on to the end, saving you six whole keystrokes. But it turns out there could be some less desirable implementations of the technology. The search-suggestion feature, and a similar feature that offers "related searches" at the bottom of the results page, could be helping to compromise the right to anonymity of complainants in UK rape and sexual assault cases.