How much is US support for Israel costing Trump? What is a Palestinian without olives? Why are Gaza's homes collapsing in winter? UK police to use AI facial recognition tech linked to Israel's war on Gaza The United Kingdom's controversial rollout of facial recognition technology will rely on software that appears to have already been deployed in Gaza, where it is used by the Israeli army to track, trace, and abduct thousands of Palestinian civilians passing through checkpoints. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that British police would massively increase the use of facial recognition technology used for surveillance purposes.

The New York Times reports that Israel's military intelligence has been using an experimental facial recognition program in Gaza that's misidentified Palestinian civilians as having ties to Hamas. Google Photos allegedly plays a part in the chilling program's implementation, although it appears not to be through any direct collaboration with the company. The surveillance program reportedly started as a way to search for Israeli hostages in Gaza. However, as often happens with new wartime technology, the initiative was quickly expanded to "root out anyone with ties to Hamas or other militant groups," according to The NYT. The technology is flawed, but Israeli soldiers reportedly haven't treated it as such when detaining civilians flagged by the system.

A police officer is at the scene of a murder. No obvious suspects or motives. DNA from the cells of one strand is copied and compared against a database. No match comes back, and the case goes cold. Corsight AI, a facial recognition subsidiary of the Israeli AI company Cortica, purports to be devising a solution for that sort of situation by using DNA to create a model of a face that can then be run through a facial recognition system.

Developers of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and biometric-related technologies have "a moral and ethical duty" to ensure the technologies are only used as a force for good, according to a report written by the UK's former surveillance camera commissioner. Developers must be cognizant of both the social benefits and risks of the AI-based technologies they produce, and have a responsibility to ensure it is used only for the benefit of society, said the whitepaper, which was published by facial-recognition supplier Corsight AI in response to the European Commission's (EC) proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). "Organisational values and principles must irreversibly commit to only producing technology as a force for good," it said. "The philosophy must surely be that we put the preservation of internationally recognised standards of human rights, our respect for the rule of law, the security of democratic institutions and the safety of citizens at the heart of what we do." It added a'human in the loop' development strategy is key to assuaging any public concerns over the use of AI and related technologies, in particular facial-recognition technology.