Microsoft’s Ban: US Police Departments Prohibited from Using Enterprise AI Tool for Facial Recognition
Microsoft has updated its policy to prohibit U.S. police departments from exploiting generative AI for facial recognition via the Azure OpenAI Service, the firm’s thoroughly managed, enterprise-oriented envelope around OpenAI technologies.
Wording introduced Wednesday to the terms of service for Azure OpenAI Service forbids integrations with Azure OpenAI Service from being used “by or for” police departments for facial recognition in the U.S., comprising integrations with OpenAI’s text and speech scrutinizing models.
An extra new bullet point covers “any law enforcement worldwide,” and specifically restricts the use of “real-time facial recognition technology” on portable cameras, like body cameras and dashcams, to try to acknowledge a person in “uncontrolled, in-the-wild” surroundings.
The variations in terms occur one week after Axon, a creator of tech and weapons products for military and law enforcement, announced a new product that employs OpenAI’s GPT-4 generative text model to condense audio from body cameras. Critics were immediate to highlight the potential downfalls, such as hallucinations (indeed the top-tier generative AI models today create facts) and racial biases introduced from the training data (which is notably worrying given that individuals of color are much more likely to be halted by police than their white equivalents).
It’s unclear whether Axon was utilizing GPT-4 through Azure OpenAI Service, and, if that is the case, whether the revised policy was a response to the launch of Axon’s product. OpenAI had previously restricted the application of its models for facial recognition via its APIs. We have contacted Axon, Microsoft, and OpenAI and will refresh this post if we receive a response.
The new conditions allow some flexibility for Microsoft.
The total ban on Azure OpenAI Service use only applies to U.S., not international, police forces. It also does not address facial recognition conducted with stationary cameras in controlled settings, such as a back office (though the terms do ban any use of facial recognition by U.S. police).
This is in line with the recent approach of Microsoft and its close associate, OpenAI, towards contracts for AI-related law enforcement and defense.
In January, Bloomberg exposed that OpenAI is cooperating with the Pentagon on multiple tasks, inclusive of cybersecurity features, as described in this article. This depicts a shift from the startup’s preliminary policy against offering its AI to militaries, which was mentioned in this article. Moreover, Microsoft proposed the application of OpenAI’s image creation tool, DALL-E, to assist the Department of Defense in the development of software for executing military operations, as stated by The Intercept.
Azure OpenAI Service was incorporated into Microsoft’s Azure Government service in February. It features additional compliance and management options for government bodies, including law enforcement. In a blog post, Candice Ling, the SVP of Microsoft’s Microsoft Federal division that is targeted at the government, committed that Azure OpenAI Service would be recommended for further approval to the DoD for supporting the workloads related to DoD missions.
After the publication, Microsoft clarified that its initial modification to the terms and conditions comprised of a mistake, and in reality, the ban applies solely to facial recognition in the U.S. This is not a general prohibition on police departments utilizing the service.
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