Microsoft Wants to Stop AI's 'Race to the Bottom'

After a hellish year of tech scandals, even government-averse executives have started professing their openness to legislation. But Microsoft president Brad Smith took it one step further on Thursday, asking governments to regulate the use of facial-recognition technology to ensure it does not invade personal privacy or become a tool for discrimination or surveillance. Tech companies are often forced to choose between social responsibility and profits, but the consequences of facial recognition are too dire for business as usual, Smith said. "We believe that the only way to protect against this race to the bottom is to build a floor of responsibility that supports healthy market competition," he said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. "We must ensure that the year 2024 doesn't look like a page from the novel 1984."