There is a crisis of face recognition and policing in the US

When news broke that a mistaken match from a face recognition system had led Detroit police to arrest Robert Williams for a crime he didn't commit, it was late June, and the country was already in upheaval over the death of George Floyd a month earlier. Soon after, it emerged that yet another Black man, Michael Oliver, was arrested under similar circumstances as Williams. While much of the US continues to cry out for racial justice, a quieter conversation is taking shape about face recognition technology and the police. We would do well to listen. When Jennifer Strong and I started reporting on the use of face recognition technology by police for our new podcast, "In Machines We Trust," we knew these AI-powered systems were being adopted by cops all over the US and in other countries.