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IBM Will No Longer Offer, Develop, or Research Facial Recognition Technology

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 09 2020, @06:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the tides-are-turning dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

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."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:44PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:44PM (#1005340)

    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.

    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)

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:50PM (#1005343)

    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

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @08:07PM (#1005350)

      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)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @09:08PM (#1005380)

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2020, @10:53PM (#1005467)

        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)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday June 09 2020, @09:27PM (#1005396)

      What does woke-culture have to do with facial recognition software?

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @02:35AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @02:35AM (#1005612)

        What does woke-culture have to do with facial recognition software?

        I don't know. Why did Krisha send this letter to these congressmen in particular:

        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).

        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.