Facial recognition for bears (and other ways to use the technology for good)

Facial recognition is problematic for humans. When it works, it invades privacy and eases us into a surveillance state. When it doesn't work, people have been falsely arrested by police. For bears, it's all good – and facial recognition is now being used to help research, monitor and protect the animals using a neural network-based system called BearID. Normally, that requires methodically examining photographs or physically tagging the animal, as the University of Victoria researcher's work on grizzly behaviour requires being able to pinpoint a specific individual.