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> If we have video of, say, an armed robbery, and we (only) use software to get a suspect list before we have human beings looking at mug shots, what is the all

> If we have video of, say, an armed robbery, and we (only) use software to get a suspect list before we have human beings looking at mug shots, what is the alleged downside? Based on my reading of the article, the 'alleged' downside (this is very clearly real, there is no need to say alleged here!) is that minorities are being swept up in the system and wrongfully accused of crimes and then jailed. Your suggestion is, what if we didn't jail them? Just round up the innocently identified minorities and start investigating them? That is....hardly an improvement. In fact it would seem that while it might reduce falsely accused innocent people from going to jail, it could increase the number of racist incidents where police are harassing innocent minorities. And worst of all, it could further entrench racist decision making inside police departments. A much better suggestion in my opinion would be, test the software before deploying it so that it doesn't make racist decisions. Set the bar VERY high for this, so the software has to be really, really, really good. Otherwise don't use it.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
> Based on my reading of the article, the 'alleged' downside (this is very clearly real, there is no need to say alleged here!) is that minorities are being swept up in the system and wrongfully accused of crimes and then jailed. Then is it really fair to call it facial recognition if it doesn't work? Or to say "we are banning this until it is more reliable" or something like that?
godelski 5y ago
To be clear, there are a lot more downsides too. Sci-Fi dystopians bring up facial recognition technology a lot and about how the technology can be abused and help a government rule with authoritarian power. I do think it is important to think about these issues since democracy isn't stable (Before we start a flame war: I'm not convinced any system is and I think you'd be hard pressed to argue one is). We should consider the vulnerabilities to our system of governance and this seems to be a common one: tracking citizens. But I think in our society "potential of authoritarian takeover" (sometimes called "turnkey tyranny") is less of a concern for people than racial bias (which is still an important topic, don't get me wrong). I think the difference is that one requires foresight and the other is an effect we can see right now. And of course, historically we've seen minorities become the early victims of authoritarians. We should think long and hard about these technologies and how to use them properly. Historically we haven't thought about ethics much in computer science, but the time isn't post hoc. We (Hacker News readers) are the experts, and we need to be talking about this decades ago, not decades from now. So let's not ignore the conversation.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

> Based on my reading of the article, the 'alleged' downside (this is very clearly real, there is no need to say alleged here!) is that minorities are being swept up in the system and wrongfully accused of crimes and then jailed. Then is it really fair to call it facial recognition if it doesn't work? Or to say "we are banning this until it is more reliable" or something like that?

godelski 5y ago

To be clear, there are a lot more downsides too. Sci-Fi dystopians bring up facial recognition technology a lot and about how the technology can be abused and help a government rule with authoritarian power. I do think it is important to think about these issues since democracy isn't stable (Before we start a flame war: I'm not convinced any system is and I think you'd be hard pressed to argue one is). We should consider the vulnerabilities to our system of governance and this seems to be a common one: tracking citizens. But I think in our society "potential of authoritarian takeover" (sometimes called "turnkey tyranny") is less of a concern for people than racial bias (which is still an important topic, don't get me wrong). I think the difference is that one requires foresight and the other is an effect we can see right now. And of course, historically we've seen minorities become the early victims of authoritarians. We should think long and hard about these technologies and how to use them properly. Historically we haven't thought about ethics much in computer science, but the time isn't post hoc. We (Hacker News readers) are the experts, and we need to be talking about this decades ago, not decades from now. So let's not ignore the conversation.