Big Brother vibes? ICE splurges on facial recognition to hunt suspects

With the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) into all parts of our lives and beyond, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has spent millions of dollars on facial recognition technology to investigate people suspected of assaulting law enforcement officers.

Indeed, ICE has invested almost $4 million in Clearview AI, the AI facial recognition technology, to investigate these assaults, according to procurement records reviewed by 404 Media, as the digital media company shared in a report published on September 8.

Why the ICE facial recognition contract is unusual

However, 404 said that these records were unusual as they indicate that the agency was buying up the technology to actually identify people who might clash with its employees as they continue the current administration’s mass deportation efforts. The other goal is to identify child sexual exploitation offenders.

As it happens, the procurement records state that the purchase from September 5 awards $3,750,000 to the facial recognition software company Clearview AI, as well as indicate that the total value of the contract was a whopping $9,225,000, explaining that:

“This award procures facial recognition software, which supports Homeland Security Investigations with capabilities of identifying victims and offenders in child sexual exploitation cases and assaults against law enforcement officers.”

Meanwhile, AI innovations, as well as controversies, continue, including with OpenAI’s new hiring platform, entirely powered by AI, which has sparked a new moral debate around it, suggesting it would be just one of many areas where AI is replacing humans in the job market.

On top of that, scientists have also earlier managed to develop a model that thinks exactly like humans and makes decisions in a remarkably similar fashion as we do, and which they hope will pave the way to a better understanding of human cognition.
Elsewhere, one of the founding fathers of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ has issued a chilling warning about the existential threat posed by rapidly advancing AI systems, expressing deep concern that AI may soon outpace human intelligence in ways we can’t imagine or control.