IBM Says It Will Stop Developing Facial Recognition Tech Due to Racial Bias

Facial recognition software is nothing if not fallible. In 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology demonstrated this with a study on A.I. systems used by police departments to identify alleged criminals. The study found that these algorithms falsely identified Asian and black faces 10 to 100 times more often than Caucasian faces. It is these sorts of findings that have led activists to call for bans on facial recognition technology and for technology companies not to develop such products. That movement scored a win on Monday, when IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced in a letter to Congress that the company will no longer develop, research, or sell facial recognition technology.