Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, despite his U.S. citizenship and Social Security card, was arrested on April 16 on an unfounded suspicion of him being an "unauthorized alien." Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept him in county jail for 30 hours "based on biometric confirmation of his identity"--an obvious mistake of facial recognition technology. Another U.S. citizen, Jensy Machado, was held at gunpoint and handcuffed by ICE agents. He was another victim of mistaken identity after someone else gave his home address on a deportation order.

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. will start using facial recognition technology to crack down on scams that use pictures of celebrities to look more legitimate, a strategy referred to as "celeb-bait ads." Scammers use images of famous people to entice users into clicking on ads that lead them to shady websites, which are designed to steal their personal information or request money. Meta will start using facial recognition technology to weed out these ads by comparing the images in the post with the images from a celebrity's Facebook or Instagram account. "If we confirm a match and that the ad is a scam, we'll block it," Meta wrote in a blog post. Meta did not disclose how common this type of scam is across its services.

As Boyd explained at a conference in June, the key question for OBIM is, "If we pick up someone from Panama at the southern border at age four, say, and then pick them up at age six, are we going to recognize them?" Facial recognition technology (FRT) has traditionally not been applied to children, largely because training data sets of real children's faces are few and far between, and consist of either low-quality images drawn from the internet or small sample sizes with little diversity. Such limitations reflect the significant sensitivities regarding privacy and consent when it comes to minors. According to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), 339,234 children arrived at the US-Mexico border in 2022, the last year for which numbers are currently available. Of those children, 150,000 were unaccompanied--the highest annual number on record.

The U.S. Air Force now has the capability to use facial recognition on drones that could target specific people. Special operations forces can use the drones to gather intelligence and to aid in other missions, according to a contract first spotted by New Scientist. It's part of a growing movement to develop automated weaponry that raises legal and ethical questions. The drone software maker, Seattle-based firm RealNetworks, claims the uncrewed craft will use artificial intelligence (AI) to fly itself and discriminate between friend and foe. The company has said that its software can also be used for rescue missions, perimeter protection, and domestic search operations.

Kurt "The CyberGuy" Knutsson provides steps to turn off facial recognition in Google Photos for your security. Facial recognition has become quite a popular tool over the last few years. You might use it on your smart devices as a quick way to unlock your screen. While using it in this way is consensual, big companies like Google can use facial recognition to gather data on you without your knowledge. CLICK TO GET KURT'S CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER Allowing Google to use your face, there is a risk that this information could be misused or potentially shared with third parties.

CHICAGO--Several technology companies are working with police departments across the U.S. to develop the capability to add artificial intelligence to video surveillance and body cameras that could identify faces in real time, potentially expanding the reach of police surveillance. The body-camera technology, expected to be ready by the fall, hasn't yet been purchased by police departments and is still in the development stage. Police departments, including the New York Police Department, already use facial recognition to review surveillance footage after a crime has occurred. The new software uses an algorithm to tell an officer on the spot, through a body camera or a video surveillance camera, that it has found a suspect. The officer could then make a decision of whether to stop the suspect or take some other action.

Google is being sued by the state of Texas for using the biometric data, like facial and voice recognition, of millions of residents without consent since 2015 'for its own commercial interests.' The lawsuit, filed by Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, claims the tech giant used these markers to train deep neural networks that power some of its highest revenue generator products, like its Google Photos app, Nest Hub Max and Google Assistant. The reason for Texas suing Google is that the state has the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, which mandates any use of biometric data requires consent and those who break the law are subject to a $25,000 per violation. Texas alleges no such consent was gained from Google users in the Lone Star State. A Google spokesperson told DailyMail.com

AI's little guys are getting into the Washington influence game. Tech giants and defense contractors have long dominated AI lobbying, seeking both money and favorable rules. And while the largest companies still dominate the debate, pending legislation in Congress aimed at getting ahead of China on innovation, along with proposed bills on data privacy, have caused a spike in lobbying by smaller AI players. A number of companies focused on robotics, drones and self-driving cars are all setting up their own Washington influence machines, positioning them to shape the future of AI policy to their liking. A lot of it is spurred by one major piece of legislation: The Bipartisan Innovation Act, commonly referred to as USICA -- an acronym for its previous title, and its goal to out-innovate China.

Taxpayers in the US don't have to use facial recognition or any kind of biometric data to access their accounts online if they don't want to. The IRS has announced that users can opt for a live, virtual interview to authenticate their identity instead of registering for an ID.me account. This move comes a few weeks after the agency said it will back away from using facial recognition following pressure from both sides of the political aisle. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the privacy and security implications of using ID.me facial recognition and how it will make the IRS a prime target of cyberattacks. To sign up for an ID.me account, taxpayers will have to send the service a copy of their government ID, a utility bill and a video selfie of themselves.

South Korea will soon roll out a pilot project to use artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition and thousands of closed-circuit video cameras to track the movement of people infected with the coronavirus, despite concerns about the invasion of privacy. The nationally-funded project in Bucheon, one of the country's most densely populated cities on the outskirts of Seoul, is due to become operational in January, a city official told the Reuters news agency. The system uses AI algorithms and facial recognition technology to analyse footage gathered by more than 10,820 security cameras and track an infected person's movements, anyone they had close contact with, and whether they were wearing a mask, according to a 110-page business plan from the city submitted to the Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), and provided to Reuters by a parliamentary legislator critical of the project. Governments worldwide have turned to new technologies and expanded legal powers to try to stem the tide of COVID-19 infections. China, Russia, India, Poland and Japan as well as several US states are among the governments to have rolled out or at least experimented with facial recognition systems for tracking COVID-19 patients, according to a March report by the Columbia Law School in New York.