Microsoft Urges Lawmakers to Regulate Face-Recognition Tech

Microsoft said it will more carefully consider contracts in facial recognition software and urged lawmakers to regulate the use of such artificial intelligence to prevent abuse, according to Bloomberg.

The company, one of the key makers of software capable of recognizing individual faces, said it will take steps to make those systems less prone to bias; develop new public principles to govern the technology; and will move more deliberately to sell its software and expertise in the area. While Microsoft noted that the tech industry bears responsibility for its products, the company argued that government action is also needed.

“The only effective way to manage the use of technology by a government is for the government proactively to manage this use itself,“ Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said in a blog post. “And if there are concerns about how a technology will be deployed more broadly across society, the only way to regulate this broad use is for the government to do so.

Companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon have been under fire from civil liberties groups and their own employees for selling AI software, particularly for facial recognition, to the U.S. government and local police. It’s somewhat unusual for tech companies to call for their own products to be more heavily regulated, but Smith and Microsoft AI chief Harry Shum earlier this year authored a treatise saying AI advances would require new laws.

Microsoft has created an AI ethics board to examine these kinds of issues and has said that it turned down some contracts to sell some software to certain customers, but has declined to provide details. The new AI board has urged a slower, more deliberate approach to selling the software, Smith said.