IBM has ceased development or research on the technology of general-purpose facial recognition or analysis software used for mass surveillance or racial profiling. In a letter to the US congress, Arvind Krishna, IBM CEO, said that IBM strongly objects and will not approve uses of any facial recognition 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 and principles of trust and transparency. “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.

With progress in AI, Facial recognition software has advanced in the past ten years. However, it is a double-edged sword. The technology has challenges and will show bias along the lines of age, race, and ethnicity. This is making it less reliable for law enforcement and security. According to Krishna, AI can be a “powerful tool” to help keep citizens safe, but only if used responsibly. “Vendors and users of AI systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that AI is tested for bias, particularly when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported,” he said.

In 2018, research showed that commercial facial recognition systems were biased. Subsequent studies gave more clarity to this. National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2019 found that there is “empirical evidence for the existence of a wide range of accuracy across demographic differences in the majority of the current face recognition algorithms that were evaluated including privacy violations.”

In the same year, a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that none of the facial recognition tools from Microsoft, Amazon and IBM was completely correct for identifying men and women with dark skin.

 Clearview AI was also heavily criticised for its facial recognition tool that had 3 billion images compiled. This was used by private sector companies and law enforcement agencies.