May 19. (Portaltic/EP) –
The South Wales Police used facial recognition technology powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify users wanted for “priority crimes” in a beyonce concert held in the city of Cardiff (Wales).
Facial recognition identification technology uses cameras to scan users’ faces and so extract and compare your facial patterns with stored biometric data, in this case, on a police “watch list”, via AI.
In this framework, the South Wales Police has made use of this facial recognition technology to identify people wanted for “priority crimes” during a beyonce concertwhich took place this Wednesday in the city of Gardiff (Wales) and who gathered around 60,000 people at the Principality Stadium, as has been collected BBCNews.
They deployed the cameras in areas close to the concert venue, to scan the people who came to see the American artist with facial recognition technology in real time. According to the Police, if people were not on their watch list, their biometric data was not stored and was immediately deleted.
On the other hand, they indicated that the recordings are kept for a total of 31 days, and stressed that in the event of identifying a user who was part of the list of “priority crimes”, the decision to proceed with the arrest was never made by technology facial recognition, if not the agents themselves verified the process.
Likewise, the agents assured that the facial recognition “was not a condition” to be able to enter the stadium to enjoy the Beyoncé concert and that this technology was not used within the same
With all this, the South Wales Police has justified the use of this technology to “assist in the identification of wanted persons for priority crimes and for support law enforcement.” It was also used to “guarantee the protection of children and vulnerable people”.
As BBC News recalled, the Police also used facial recognition technology during the coronation of King of England Charles III. However, its use in public spaces presents some controversies as it goes against some user privacy rightsas well as the risks it poses in the presence of biases such as gender and race.
The legality of use of this type of technique are being driven by AI currently debating in the European Union (EU) to preserve the rights of citizens. In fact, in the year 2021, the European Commission has already requested a ban on high-risk AIsuch as indiscriminate facial recognition in public places.
A year earlier he had raised the possibility of ban the use of facial recognition technology in public places for a period of up to five years in order to advance in the development of solutions that mitigate the risks involved.
In the same way, EU legislators are advancing in the consolidation of the Artificial Intelligence Law, agreeing to include in the text the general prohibition of AI-assisted remote biometric identification.