Microsoft Pushes Urgency of Regulating Facial-Recognition Technology

Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, dialed up the urgency on Thursday, arguing that delays to enacting new rules could "exacerbate societal issues." Society is ill-served "by a commercial race to the bottom, with tech companies forced to choose between social responsibility and market success," he wrote in a blog post. Mr. Smith also was scheduled to speak about Microsoft's position Thursday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., the same day a group of tech leaders from Microsoft and other companies visited the White House for a summit on issues including artificial intelligence. Microsoft's advocacy of regulation underlines the ambivalence over powerful new technologies enabled by advances in AI. Adoption of facial recognition is proceeding quickly--especially in China, where the government uses it extensively for surveillance--stirring concerns about potential misuse.