Microsoft tweaks facial-recognition tech to combat bias

Microsoft's facial-recognition technology is getting smarter at recognizing people with darker skin tones. On Tuesday, the company touted the progress, though it comes amid growing worries that these technologies will enable surveillance against people of color. Microsoft's announcement didn't broach the concerns; the company merely addressed how its facial-recognition tech could misidentify both men and women with darker skin tones. Microsoft has recently reduced the system's error rates by up to 20 times. In February, research from MIT and Stanford University highlighted how facial-recognition technologies can be built with bias. The study found that Microsoft's own system was 99 percent accurate when it came to identifying the gender of lighter-skinned people, but only 87 percent accurate for darker-skinned subjects.