Are engineers responsible for the consequences of their algorithms?

It's become a custom for some protesters to cover their faces during public demonstrations. Now, it seems, technology could outwit them: a team of engineers has created an algorithm that can identify faces that are partially covered. The algorithm identifies faces using angles at 14 different points on the face, according to a paper published on the preprint server arXiv to be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops in October. The researchers trained and validated the algorithm, which relies on a form of artificial intelligence called deep learning, using a dataset of 1500 images of 25 human faces. Each face was partially obscured by one or more of ten disguises (such as sunglasses, a face scarf, or a hat) and eight complex backgrounds to simulate real-world photos.