Within seconds, you've been scanned, stored, and tracked--before even reaching airport security. Without ever handing over your ID, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) already knows exactly who you are. This is happening at 84 airports across the US. And chances are, you didn't even notice. Marketed as a tool to enhance security, TSA's facial recognition system is drawing criticism for its potential to track Americans from the terminal entrance to their final destination.

Thousands of people lined up outside Citi Field in Queens, New York on Wednesday to watch the Mets face off with the Orioles. But outside the ticketing booth, a handful of protesters handed out flyers. They were there to protest a recent Major League Baseball program, and one that's increasingly common in professional sports: using facial recognition on fans. Facial recognition companies and their customers argue that these systems save time, and therefore money, by shortening lines at stadium entrances. However, skeptics argue that the surveillance tools are never totally secure, make it easier for police to get information about fans, and fuel "mission creep" where surveillance technology becomes more common, or even required.

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.

Two years after Los Angeles police leaders set tougher limits on the use of facial recognition technology, a follow-up report found the department lacks a way to track its outcomes or effectiveness. The report, by the LAPD inspector general's office, found that LAPD personnel used facial recognition software in an effort to identify criminal suspects nearly 2,000 times last year. Of those searches, about 55% resulted in a positive match -- meaning that an image of an unidentified suspect was matched through artificial intelligence to a mugshot or other photo of a known person, the report found. On Tuesday, Inspector General Mark Smith told the department's civilian oversight commissioners that the LAPD was largely in compliance with a 2021 policy that set out rules for when and how specially trained officers can use a facial recognition program maintained by the county Sheriff's Department. The county program runs images against a database of roughly 9 million mugshots of people who have been booked into the county's detention facilities -- a far less expansive pool than some third-party search platforms.

Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition program and deleting more than 1 billion users' faceprints, a company official said Tuesday. The move means more than one-third of Facebook's daily active users – about 640 million people – who have opted into the social network's facial recognition option no longer will be automatically recognized in photos and videos, said Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Meta, the newlynamed parent company of Facebook, in a blog post. Also affected: Facebook's automatic alt text system, which uses facial recognition and artificial intelligence to give those who are blind or visually impaired descriptions of images that let them know when they or a friend are in an image. Facebook is taking this action, Pesenti said, because "the many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole." In addition to societal concerns about how facial recognition may be used, "regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use," he said.

When you think about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and war, you might find yourself thinking about killer robots, like those we have seen in movies such as The Terminator. In reality, AI and warfare looks quite different from these popularized images, and today we see many countries around the world exploring the use of AI and implementing AI systems into their militaries and defense programs. With this increased interest in AI, there has also been a growing debate about the ethics and legality of using AI in warfare. While there are many concerning aspects about AI being utilized in warfare, one that is particularly troubling, but has also received less attention, is that of biased AI systems. Certain lessons can be learnt by looking at examples of biased AI in non-military settings. It has become increasingly clear from a number of investigations and studies that the biases that exist within our society will also become embedded into AI.

London (CNN Business)IBM is canceling its facial recognition programs and calling for an urgent public debate on whether the technology should be used in law enforcement. In a letter to Congress on Monday, IBM (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna said the company wants to work with lawmakers to advance justice and racial equity through police reform, educational opportunities and the responsible use of technology. "We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies," he said, noting that the company no longer offers general purpose facial recognition or analysis software. "IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values," he added. Krishna is of Indian origin and IBM's first CEO of color.

The government of Singapore is preparing to transition to a facial recognition program it hopes will eliminate the need for ID cards by 2022. Beginning in June, kiosks fitted with cameras will be installed at a limited number of government agencies, and instead of presenting an ID card citizens will be able to check in for services with just their faces. The facial recognition system is a major expansion of the Smart Nation Initiative, which began in 2014 under Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and through which the state has built up a biometric database on more than four million Singaporeans over the age of 15. The facial recognition kiosks will crosscheck each new scan against this database to verify a person's identity, according to a report in The Strait Times. The kiosks will also work in tandem with SingPass Mobile, an app launched in 2018 that allows people to register their own finger print and face data with the government's biometric database.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has never been afraid to voice her opinion. From her calls to shut down U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to her push to impeach President Trump, take a look back at her most controversial statements over the past two years. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib told Detroit's chief of police that he should hire only black people as analysts to run their facial recognition software because, she claimed, non-black people think they all look alike. The suggestion came Monday as Chief James Craig gave Tlaib a tour of the Real Time Crime Center, where the department uses facial recognition technology to find suspects. Craig was showing Tlaib how the software works, and how analysts use it to identify and locate individuals.

The City of New Orleans has been adamant that it "does not use facial recognition software." Though there is no city ordinance outright banning the technology, city officials often repeat that claim, and have even included a line in the privacy policy of its Real-Time Crime Center surveillance hub stating "Facial recognition is not utilized by the System." But that is an incomplete picture of how facial recognition technology is being used in New Orleans. Now, court evidence reveals that Louisiana state police officers can and have utilized a searchable facial recognition database to assist New Orleans police in their investigations. In at least one NOPD investigation, facial recognition was used to identify and indict a suspect.