Microsoft
Microsoft forbids US law enforcement agencies from using Azure’s AI facial recognition tools
Microsoft allegedly forbade the USPD from using the facial recognition software Azure OpenAI, driven by artificial intelligence.
Microsoft limited the use of Azure OpenAI Service integration “for facial recognition purposes by or for a police department in the United States” as part of a code of conduct update.
The policy changes followed closely one week after Axon, a manufacturer of technology and armaments for law enforcement and the military, unveiled a new product that summarises audio from body cams using OpenAI’s GPT-4 generative text model.
Critics were fast to draw attention to the possible drawbacks, which included racial prejudices and hallucinations brought up by the training data.
Newsng gathered that the Azure OpenAI Service “prohibits identification or verification of individual identities using media containing people’s faces by any user, including by or for state or local police in the United States,” according to the code of conduct before the update.
There was no mention of an international law enforcement agency in this code of conduct.
Azure OpenAI Service offers industry-leading coding and language AI models that you can fine-tune to your specific needs for a variety of use cases.
The entire limitation on using Azure OpenAI services is only applicable to U.S. police, not foreign police, according to the update.
Furthermore, it doesn’t cover face recognition using stationary cameras in controlled settings, such as a back office (although the terms forbid the use of facial recognition by US police in any capacity).
This is consistent with Microsoft’s and close partner OpenAI’s recent strategy for AI-related contracts in the defence and law enforcement sectors.
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