Vision
How a new type of AI is helping police skirt facial recognition bans
"The whole vision behind Track in the first place," says Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg, was "if we're not allowed to track people's faces, how do we assist in trying to potentially identify criminals or malicious behavior or activity?" In addition to tracking individuals where facial recognition isn't legally allowed, Steelberg says, it allows for tracking when faces are obscured or not visible. The product has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which--after learning of the tool through MIT Technology Review--said it was the first instance they'd seen of a nonbiometric tracking system used at scale in the US. They warned that it raises many of the same privacy concerns as facial recognition but also introduces new ones at a time when the Trump administration is pushing federal agencies to ramp up monitoring of protesters, immigrants, and students. Veritone gave us a demonstration of Track in which it analyzed people in footage from different environments, ranging from the January 6 riots to subway stations.
ICE's Deportation Airline Hack Reveals Man 'Disappeared' to El Salvador
A United States Customs and Border Protection request for information this week revealed the agency's plans to find vendors that can supply face recognition technology for capturing data on everyone entering the US in a vehicle like a car or van, not just the people sitting in the front seat. And a CBP spokesperson later told WIRED that the agency also has plans to expand its real-time face recognition capabilities at the border to detect people exiting the US as well--a focus that may be tied to the Trump administration's push to get undocumented people to "self-deport" and leave the US. WIRED also shed light this week on a recent CBP memo that rescinded a number of internal policies designed to protect vulnerable people--including pregnant women, infants, the elderly, and people with serious medical conditions--while in the agency's custody. Signed by acting commissioner Pete Flores, the order eliminates four Biden-era policies. Meanwhile, as the ripple effects of "SignalGate" continue, the communication app TeleMessage suspended "all services" pending an investigation after former US national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently called attention to the app, which subsequently suffered data breaches in recent days.
US Customs and Border Protection Plans to Photograph Everyone Exiting the US by Car
United States Customs and Border Protection plans to log every person leaving the country by vehicle by taking photos at border crossings of every passenger and matching their faces to their passports, visas, or travel documents, WIRED has learned. The escalated documentation of travelers could be used to track how many people are self-deporting, or leave the US voluntarily, which the Trump administration is fervently encouraging to people in the country illegally. CBP exclusively tells WIRED, in response to an inquiry to the agency, that it plans to mirror the current program it's developing--photographing every person entering the US and match their faces with their travel documents--to the outbound lanes going to Canada and Mexico. The agency currently does not have a system that monitors people leaving the country by vehicle. "Although we are still working on how we would handle outbound vehicle lanes, we will ultimately expand to this area," CBP spokesperson Jessica Turner tells WIRED.
A murder victim addressed his killer in court thanks to AI resurrection
And, as AI gets more advanced, so do the resurrections. Most recently, Stacey Wales used AI to generate a video of her late brother, Christopher Pelkey, to address the courtroom at the sentencing hearing for the man who killed him in a road rage incident in Chandler, Arizona. According to NPR, its the first time AI has ever been used in this way. "He doesn't get a say. He doesn't get a chance to speak," Wales told NPR, referring to her brother.
Meta forges ahead with facial recognition for its AI glasses
Meet Aperol and Bellini, the codenames Meta has given its new "super-sensing" AI glasses with facial recognition technology, according to The Information. Meta originally scrapped the facial recognition feature for the first generation of the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses over ethical concerns. However, the new report from The Information claims that a more business-friendly Federal Trade Commission under the new Trump Administration has emboldened Meta to reboot its plans for the next generation of smart glasses. It's the latest example of AI-powered tech creeping into your private life, whether you like it or not. Meta may have signalled this shift back in April, when the company updated its privacy policies for its AR glasses.
Meta is reportedly working on facial recognition for its AI glasses
Diminished tech privacy appears to be another ripple effect from Trump 2.0. The Information reported on Wednesday that Meta has changed its tune on facial recognition. After considering but ultimately bailing on the technology for the first version of its smart glasses, the company is now actively working on wearables that can identify nearby faces. Remember when being a "Glasshole" was considered a faux pas? According to The Information, Meta has recently discussed adding software to its smart glasses that scans bystanders' faces and identifies people by name.
Best video doorbells 2025: Reviews and buying advice
Your front door is your home's first line of defense. Having a video doorbell mounted next to that door is almost as important as having a deadbolt, because it will not only give your visitors an easy way to let you know they're there, but it will also know when anyone approaches your homeโwhether or not you're home at the time. In fact, these cameras are so useful you might want to mount one next to every entry point into your home: side entrances, at your garage door, and the door to your backyard, for example. Whether you're waiting for friends to visit, watching for trouble-makers, tracking parcel deliveries, or hiding from that weird neighbor who keeps asking to borrow your lawn mower, the video doorbell is an essential security tool. TechHive's editors and contributors have been testing video doorbells since 2014, and we continuously evaluate the latest devices along with their accompanying apps.
US Border Agents Are Asking for Help Taking Photos of Everyone Entering the Country by Car
United States Customs and Border Protection is asking tech companies to send pitches for a real-time facial recognition tool that would take photos of every single person in a vehicle at a border crossing, including anyone in the back seats, and match them to travel documents, according to a document posted in a federal register last week. The request for information, or RIF, says that CBP already has a facial recognition tool that takes a picture of a person at a port of entry and compares it to travel or identity documents that someone gives to a border officer, as well as other photos from those documents already "in government holdings." "Biometrically confirmed entries into the United States are added to the traveler's crossing record," the document says. An agency under the Department of Homeland Security, CBP says that its facial recognition tool "is currently operating in the air, sea, and land pedestrian environments." The agency's goal is to bring it to "the land vehicle environment."
Good riddance: The webs top deepfake porn site is shutting down
Mr. Deepfakes is no more. One of the internet's biggest destinations for nonconsensual deepfake porn has announced that it is shutting down. The website, Mr. Deepfakes, has already gone offline, as first noticed by 404 Media. Deepfakes are essentially hyperrealistic face-swapping videos that are created with machine-learning technology. Deepfakes became very popular on social media platforms like Reddit in 2017, with users superimposing celebrities' likeness into various movie and TV show clips.
Get a 5-piece Blink home security bundle for under 160
SAVE 160: As of May 5, you can get a Blink home security bundle -- including the Blink Video Doorbell, three Outdoor 4 cameras, and a Sync Module 2 -- for just 159.98. You can't put a price tag on peace of mind, but you can get pretty close with this Blink home security bundle at Amazon. As of May 5, the Blink bundle is down to just 159.98 instead of its usual 319.98. That's 50% in savings and 30 cheaper than if you bought each piece separately on sale. It includes the Blink Video Doorbell, three Blink Outdoor 4 cameras, and the Sync Module 2 -- everything you need to keep an eye on what's happening around your home.