Clearview AI Is On The Verge Of A Patent Despite Intense Controversies

Clearview AI has been provided with the go-ahead signal for securing a federal patent for its facial recognition software, as reported by Politico. The US Patents and Trademarks Office sent a "notice of allowance" to Clearview on December 1, implying that the patent will be awarded once the organization pays the necessary administrative fees. The patent will, among other things, cover its method of obtaining information, specifically, its "automated web crawler" tool that scans social networking sites and the internet, the same process that has led the company to face extensive backlash from numerous privacy advocates. "There are other facial recognition patents out there -- that are methods of doing it -- but this is the first one around the use of large-scale internet data," Ton-That, the founder of Clearview AI, told Politico in an interview. Clearview AI has more than 10 billion photos in their database, which was confirmed by Ton-That, much more than the previous estimate of 3 billion images.