Microsoft has added to the slowly growing pile of technologies aimed at spotting synthetic media (aka deepfakes) with the launch of a tool for analyzing videos and still photos to generate a manipulation score. The tool, called Video Authenticator, provides what Microsoft calls "a percentage chance, or confidence score" that the media has been artificially manipulated. "In the case of a video, it can provide this percentage in real-time on each frame as the video plays," it writes in a blog post announcing the tech. "It works by detecting the blending boundary of the deepfake and subtle fading or greyscale elements that might not be detectable by the human eye." If a piece of online content looks real but'smells' wrong chances are it's a high tech manipulation trying to pass as real -- perhaps with a malicious intent to misinform people.

Microsoft Corp. called for new legislation to govern artificial intelligence software for recognizing faces, advocating for human review and oversight of the technology in critical cases. "This includes where decisions may create a risk of bodily or emotional harm to a consumer, where there may be implications on human or fundamental rights, or where a consumer's personal freedom or privacy may be impinged," Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith wrote in a blog published in conjunction with a speech on the topic at the Brookings Institution think tank. Sellers of the technology must "recognize that they are not absolved of their obligation to comply with laws prohibiting discrimination against individual consumers or groups of consumers," he added. Smith also wants laws to require sellers of the products to explain what they do clearly and open up their services to testing by outside parties for accuracy and bias. Earlier Thursday, advocacy group AI Now called for greater regulation and regular audits of AI tools used by governments.

The new letter finds Microsoft frustrated at regulatory foot-dragging, instead placing the burden on tech regulation on the companies themselves. "We believe that the only way to protect against this race to the bottom is to build a floor of responsibility that supports healthy market competition," writes Smith. "And a solid floor requires that we ensure that this technology, and the organizations that develop and use it, are governed by the rule of law."

Microsoft is calling on the U.S. government to regulate facial recognition technology. Microsoft has called on the government to step up and regulate facial recognition technology. In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith called for "thoughtful government regulation" and "the development of norms" around using facial recognition technology. "Without a thoughtful approach, public authorities may rely on flawed or biased technological approaches to decide who to track, investigate or even arrest for a crime," Smith wrote. Smith also said Microsoft, which has supplied facial recognition to some businesses, already has rejected some customers' requests to deploy the technology in situations involving "human rights risks."

Microsoft has called for facial recognition technology to be regulated by government, with for laws governing its acceptable uses. In a blog post on the company's website on Friday, Microsoft president Brad Smith called for a congressional bipartisan "expert commission" to look into regulating the technology in the US. "It seems especially important to pursue thoughtful government regulation of facial recognition technology, given its broad societal ramifications and potential for abuse," he wrote. "Without a thoughtful approach, public authorities may rely on flawed or biased technological approaches to decide who to track, investigate or even arrest for a crime." Microsoft is the first big tech company to raise serious alarms about an increasingly sought-after technology for recognising a person's face from a photo or through a camera.

Microsoft Corp., which has come under fire for a U.S. government contract that was said to involve facial recognition software, said it will more carefully consider contracts in this area and urged lawmakers to regulate the use of such artificial intelligence to prevent abuse. The company, one of the key makers of software capable of recognizing individual faces, said it will take steps to make those systems less prone to bias; develop new public principles to govern the technology; and will move more deliberately to sell its software and expertise in the area. While Microsoft noted that the tech industry bears responsibility for its products, the company argued that government action is also needed. "The only effective way to manage the use of technology by a government is for the government proactively to manage this use itself," Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said Friday in a blog post. "And if there are concerns about how a technology will be deployed more broadly across society, the only way to regulate this broad use is for the government to do so. This in fact is what we believe is needed today -- a government initiative to regulate the proper use of facial recognition technology, informed first by a bipartisan and expert commission."

In a blog post today, Microsoft President Brad Smith called for Congress to begin considering regulation of facial recognition technology, calling it "the technology of the moment" and noting its "broad societal ramifications and potential for abuse." Throughout the post, Smith discusses the potential pros and cons of facial recognition while also highlighting its current limitations, and he ultimately questions, "What role do we want this type of technology to play in everyday society?" It's a timely question, as Amazon is currently facing pushback over its facial recognition technology and its practice of selling it to law enforcement groups. Employees have asked the company to stop providing law enforcement with the technology, as has the ACLU and multiple Amazon investors. Microsoft has also faced some controversy over its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but Smith said today that the contract isn't being used for facial recognition.

Microsoft is calling for government regulation on facial-recognition software, one of its key technologies, saying such artificial intelligence is too important and potentially dangerous for tech giants to police themselves. On Friday, company president Brad Smith urged lawmakers in a blog post to form a bipartisan and expert commission that could set standards and ward against abuses of face recognition, in which software can be used to identify a person from afar without their consent. "This technology can catalog your photos, help reunite families or potentially be misused and abused by private companies and public authorities alike," Smith wrote. "The only way to regulate this broad use is for the government to do so." Could that be used against immigrants?]

Microsoft is calling for government regulation on facial-recognition software, one of its key technologies, saying such artificial intelligence is too important and potentially dangerous for tech giants to police themselves. On Friday, company president Brad Smith urged lawmakers in a blog post to form a bipartisan and expert commission that could set standards and ward against abuses of face recognition, in which software can be used to identify a person from afar without their consent. "This technology can catalog your photos, help reunite families or potentially be misused and abused by private companies and public authorities alike," Smith wrote. "The only way to regulate this broad use is for the government to do so." Could that be used against immigrants?]

Over the past year, Silicon Valley has been grappling with the way it handles our data, our elections, and our speech. Now it's got a new concern: our faces. In just the past few weeks, critics assailed Amazon for selling facial recognition technology to local police departments, and Facebook for how it gained consent from Europeans to identify people in their photos. Microsoft has endured its own share of criticism lately around the ethical uses of its technology, as employees protested a contract under which US Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses Microsoft's cloud-computing service. Microsoft says that contract did not involve facial recognition. When it comes to facial analysis, a Microsoft service used by other companies has been shown to be far more accurate for white men than for women or people of color.