How a new type of AI is helping police skirt facial recognition bans

"The whole vision behind Track in the first place," says Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg, was "if we're not allowed to track people's faces, how do we assist in trying to potentially identify criminals or malicious behavior or activity?" In addition to tracking individuals where facial recognition isn't legally allowed, Steelberg says, it allows for tracking when faces are obscured or not visible. The product has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which--after learning of the tool through MIT Technology Review--said it was the first instance they'd seen of a nonbiometric tracking system used at scale in the US. They warned that it raises many of the same privacy concerns as facial recognition but also introduces new ones at a time when the Trump administration is pushing federal agencies to ramp up monitoring of protesters, immigrants, and students. Veritone gave us a demonstration of Track in which it analyzed people in footage from different environments, ranging from the January 6 riots to subway stations.