Ethical Concerns of Combating Crimes with AI Surveillance and Facial Recognition Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI)¹ has been rapidly growing worldwide, with new applications being discovered every day. While AI has applications across many sectors, one area where it is commonly utilized is in AI surveillance and facial recognition technology to combat crimes. As of 2019, at least seventy-five countries globally are actively using AI technologies for surveillance purposes, including smart city/safe city platforms, facial recognition systems, and smart policing initiatives (Feldstein 2019: 1). However, the widespread use of AI in the name of combating crimes does not come without a cost; multiple ethical concerns have arisen in the past couple of years, which questions the feasibility of implementing AI technology to combat crimes. This article will examine two prominent ethical concerns regarding AI in fighting crimes: biases in facial recognition technology and authoritarian governments exploiting AI surveillance in the name of public safety.