Ukraine is using AI facial recognition to identify victims and vet people at checkpoints

The Ukraine defense ministry announced that it is now using facial recognition technology from an American startup to combat misinformation, identify the dead, and expose Russian assailants. The technology, which is like a search engine for faces that aggregates data from millions of social media users across the open web, had previously stirred controversy due to privacy complaints. After the war broke out, the American-based artificial intelligence company Clearview reached out to Ukraine's government, offering its services free of charge. This week, the collaboration became official and Clearview's facial recognition tech is now claimed to be used for security purposes, such as vetting people of interest at checkpoints. Clearview claims that it has amassed a database of over 10 billion photos posted publically on the internet from sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Getty Images.