- Microsoft announced it is hiring former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether AnyVision violated its ethics around facial recognition
Microsoft is bringing in former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether Israel-based AnyVision violated the Redmond giant’s ethics around facial recognition technology. The facial recognition technology tools made by AnyVision have reportedly been used for surveilling Palestinians.
Microsoft’s venture capital arm M12 had invested in AnyVision in a $74 million round back in June. M12’s contingency for the investment was the AnyVision had to comply with its six ethical principles for guiding facial recognition, including fairness, transparency, accountability, non-discrimination, notice and consent, and lawful surveillance.
“We will advocate for safeguards for people’s democratic freedoms in law enforcement surveillance scenarios and will not deploy facial recognition technology in scenarios that we believe will put these freedoms at risk,” says Microsoft about the lawful surveillance principle via NBC News.
Last month, there was a report that facial recognition technology created by AnyVision was used in a secret military operation to conduct the surveillance of Palestinians in the West Bank. However, AnyVision denied the allegations and said that the report was inaccurate.
“They will move quickly, reviewing documents and conducting on the ground interviews with Anyvision employees and others to ensure a full and thorough investigation,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement via NBC.
Microsoft’s involvement in military operations and government agencies has been heavily criticized by internal employees. In February, a group of Microsoft employees opposed Microsoft’s major HoloLens contract with the US army.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella encouraged employees to speak up about their opinions. However, Microsoft decided to push forward with the contract by saying that the company is not going to withhold technology from “institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.”
Last year, Google’s employees pressured the company to pull out of a bid for a $10 billion contract with the US Department of Defense. Google pointed out that the project may have implications around the principles based on the ethical use of artificial intelligence. Microsoft ended up winning that contract over Amazon Web Services.
Featured photo credit: Eric Holder
