US cop body cam maker says it won't ship face-recog tech in its kit? Due to ethics? Did we slip into a parallel universe?

Axon, the largest supplier of body cameras to America's cops, will not add facial-recognition technology to its gear anytime soon, it announced Thursday. Formerly known as Taser, Axon had asked its AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board – made up of engineers, social scientists, and lawyers – to mull over the impact of building face-scanning machine-learning systems into its products. After a year of consideration, the board recommended Axon avoid the tech. And so, astonishingly, it has. "Face recognition technology is not currently reliable enough to ethically justify its use on bodyworn cameras," the panel of eggheads concluded in a report out this week.