Clearview AI has stirred up quite a controversy, and when you see what the company has been up to, it’s easy to see why.
The corporation has built a robust online database of over 40 billion facial images, which it gathered from various online sources, including social media, news sites, and random corners of the web. This has been done without explicit consent from the people pictured.
The software is pitched primarily to law enforcement, private security, and some corporate clients who need to identify people quickly. Users can upload a photo of a face, and it scans the database for matches and links to where the images originated — like a LinkedIn profile or a Facebook post.
Glenn Beck says it’s trouble. While it may be useful in certain situations, put in the hands of a rogue government, Clearview AI becomes a tool for totalitarianism.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, however, is fighting to expand Clearview’s use in court cases.
On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” the two engaged in a debate.
In a recent Ohio case, law enforcement used Clearview AI to match a blurry surveillance photo to a suspect. This information was then used to obtain a search warrant, which resulted in cops locating a gun and arresting the suspect. The judge, however, threw out the evidence because the warrant paperwork didn’t mention Clearview’s role, its disclaimer about not being court-ready evidence, or other possible matches it flagged.
That’s when Yost’s team stepped in and filed an appeal, arguing that the police’s use of Clearview AI was legitimate and that the evidence should stand. As of now, the court’s decision is undecided.
While Glenn agrees that Clearview technology “is a great thing to get the bad guys,” it’s “exactly the kind of technology” China uses “to track everybody.”
“I worry about that, too,” says Yost.
However, he argues that Clearview AI technology is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment because the images it gathers are from the public domain. It’s different, he says, than the Supreme Court case Kyllo v. United States, in which the court ruled that the cop who used thermal imaging technology to scan for marijuana growing in Danny Kyllo’s home violated his privacy rights.
But Glenn isn’t convinced.
“I am very, very concerned about this slippery, almost straight-down slope to the cage that AI could build for people,” he says. “We can have all of the best intentions, but it falls into the wrong hands, we lose several elections in a row, and it’ll be a prison; it’ll be a panopticon like it is in China.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. It scares me what the government can do about this. If you think back to the Biden administration and social media and what they were doing — you multiply that, make that geometrically larger and that’s the potential. We’ve got to be vigilant,” says Yost.
To hear more of the debate, watch the clip above. Leave us a comment below. What do you think? Does facial recognition technology catch crooks or pave the way for tyranny?
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