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IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology:
IBM will no longer offer general purpose facial recognition or analysis software, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a letter to Congress today. The company will also no longer develop or research the technology, IBM tells The Verge. Krishna addressed the letter to Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
"IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any [facial recognition] technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency," Krishna said in the letter. "We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:34PM (18 children)
Possible translations:
They have come up with something better than facial recognition. (be scared)
They have realized (like many have) that this is exploitable and never 100% reliable, despite what managers may think.
They are afraid of lawsuits if their systems identify certain groups of people as apes (It keeps flagging this one orange guy as an orangutan)
Their facial recognition offering sucks and they don't want to admit it.
They are in some boring legal or contract position that happens to prevent this, so paint a friendly face on it.
Anyway, walmart will just buy their facial recognition from someone else.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:49PM (2 children)
IBM found a way to fire people and look good at the same time. How could they possibly pass this opportunity up?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:58PM (1 child)
At IBM: "Our expectations for you were low, but holy fuckin' shit, man..."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:04PM
International Business Machines (Gone Flexible [soylentnews.org])
They should rename to International Business Services.
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(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:18PM
Probably just removing the thing from public view, put under a gag order? Anything is plausible with all the secrecy
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:38PM (7 children)
Possibly a combination of several of them. They probably want to cut fields of business that are somehow controversial at the current time -- just see all the little drones at Google, Microsoft, Facebook etc rising up over various contract etc. So they are proactive here and just cut that line of business.
There have been prior news about how facial rec just doesn't work all that well unless you are white and male -- their interpretation of this was as I recall it now that the system was racist? or created by them.
Then you probably have the whole slew of legal issues, wrongful identification to racial profiling to something else.
... or they just simply unloaded all these things into another corporation or entity as to not taint the Big blue brand -- they learned their WW2 lesson already with selling punch card systems to Germany. Don't want to repeat that thing again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:44PM (6 children)
Unless things have changed massively in recent times, that was never the culture at IBM. You did the job you were assigned to do, good on you if it had visibility and good funding. If you don't like it, you can leave and find out what life is like in Poughkeepsie, NY, outside of IBM.
(Score: 1, Troll) by looorg on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:50PM (5 children)
I'm sure woke-culture has reached Poughkeepsie by this time, or is about to -- nobody seems to be immune. While they used to be the suit and tie place I figure they have changed to. Don't recall many corporations being as sensitive as they are these days.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @08:07PM
Seeing how one of their early gigs was keeping track of all the Final Solution inventory through tatooed serial numbers to use on International Business Machines, one could see how they would be leery about recent return of fascism in the United States. Palantir is still on track [thedailybeast.com], however, fueled by "young blood" transfusions, even if the principal has gone sour on the #BunkerBoy. [salon.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)
I'm sure there will be some hard core white supremacists that will never wrap their heads around the concept of equality and respect. Not sure why it is such a contentious issue, but then again the US has plenty of literal Nazis and hard core racists still angry about losing their slaves :|
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @10:53PM
Flamebait huh? Reality gotcha triggered bruh? Need to share Ben Shapiro's safe space bruheimer?
Wasn't even a personal attack on who I replied to, but I guess some people just HATE reality being pointed out. Citation: the last week plus all the rest of US history.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 09 2020, @09:27PM (1 child)
What does woke-culture have to do with facial recognition software?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @02:35AM
I don't know. Why did Krisha send this letter to these congressmen in particular:
All Democrats too. The letter doesn't mention that it is in reply to their request. so it seems to project proactive wokeness and virtue signaling.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:48PM (5 children)
Or they were compelled by a government agency to do something with it that was an egregious violation of human rights and their only way out was to simply say "we don't sell or develop that so we can't help you."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @08:28PM (4 children)
The company that worked with actual Nazis? Puuuuuuuuuuuleaze.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @09:54PM (2 children)
Did you just say "actual" Nazis? There are actual literal White Supremacist Nazi Fascists in every board room in America. Every looter is a alt-right Nazi. Every cop is a Nazi bastard. All wypipo are Nazis and should be exterminated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @11:03PM
Your nanny sure hated you to drop you on the head so many times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @06:39AM
Punch'em in the face and be done with it.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday June 10 2020, @01:58AM
Lumping in the current management with those of 80 years ago is a bit of a stretch. I know it's very witty to point that out, but what you're effectively saying is that people and corporations are incapable of change. If that's the case then there's no point in trying.