BEIJING – Dozens of Chinese firms have built software that uses artificial intelligence to sort data collected on residents, amid high demand from authorities seeking to upgrade their surveillance tools, a Reuters review of government documents shows. According to more than 50 publicly available documents examined by Reuters, dozens of entities in China have over the past four years bought such software, known as "one person, one file." The technology improves on existing software, which simply collects data but leaves it to people to organize. "The system has the ability to learn independently and can optimize the accuracy of file creation as the amount of data increases. Henan's department of public security did not respond to requests for comment about the system and its uses.

Deep learning is an emerging field currently gaining significant attention in the security industry, especially in the surveillance market. By using powerful algorithms, devices are now capable of understanding and adapting to their environment by storing and analyzing large data sets, all without human intervention. Considered the next Industrial Revolution, the deep learning of artificial intelligence is making technology more efficient than ever thought possible. This intelligence is a key component to the development of sophisticated, data-rich information that enables surveillance systems to search through hours or days of video with a single click to locate an individual person or vehicle across a single site or multiple locations. Deep learning provides the necessary building blocks to clearly identify a person and know if that person is walking, running or crawling -- distinctions that video analytics was not previously capable of doing.