Microsoft Plans to Eliminate Face Analysis Tools in Push for 'Responsible A.I.'

"We're taking concrete steps to live up to our A.I. principles," said Natasha Crampton, Microsoft's chief responsible AI officer. For years, activists and academics have been raising concerns that facial analysis software that claims to be able to identify a person's age, gender and emotional state can be biased, unreliable or invasive -- and shouldn't be sold. Acknowledging some of those criticisms, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it planned to remove those features from its artificial intelligence service for detecting, analyzing and recognizing faces. They will stop being available to new users this week, and will be phased out for existing users within the year. The changes are part of a push by Microsoft for tighter controls of its artificial intelligence products.