The story of Randal Quran Reid, who was mistakenly jailed due to poor facial recognition systems, has sparked worries about the growing usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in society.
Reid, an African American man, was wrongfully detained by Georgia state police last year for a crime he had no relation to. What’s more, Reid had never traveled to New Orleans, where the crime happened, and his arrest was predicated on a defective facial recognition system that incorrectly connected him to the culprit.
Critics claim that this episode is only the tip of a much broader problem, exposing the inherent biases and flaws in AI systems. Facial recognition, hailed as a game-changing tool for improving public safety, has come under fire for disproportionately targeting vulnerable areas and amplifying existing racial and gender prejudices, raising concerns about the larger societal ramifications of AI.
People are increasingly expressing their own fears about its potential to cause harm to mankind. They underline the urgent necessity to handle the related hazards on a global basis by comparing AI to big threats such as pandemics and nuclear weapons.
The sources for this piece include an article in The Guardian.