Beijing's AI-powered pan-China racial profiling uncovered

Chinese authorities are using facial recognition to track its Uyghur Muslim minority across the country, according to the New York Times . Beijing's use of advanced AI and other surveillance tools to monitor Uyghurs under the guise of maintaining social stability and countering terrorism has been extensively documented outside China. But the NYT found that Chinese authorities are using AI to target Uyghurs outside Xinjiang, including in wealthy cities like Hangzhou and Wenzhou. The newspaper claimed that one central city scanned whether residents were Uyghurs 500,000 times in one month, and that the programme amounted to "automated racism". The Times cites experts who said this is the first known example of a government intentionally using AI for racial profiling. As other authoritarian regimes adopt similar systems, often developed in China and "trained" on the country's ethnic and religious minorities, Beijing's export of AI surveillance technologies is seen to pose a major threat to human rights and civil liberties across the world. Racial profiling - China The Chinese government has been using a facial recognition surveillance technology , analysing physiognomical output of surveillance cameras to track and control Uyghurs , a Muslim minority in China's Western province of Xinjiang . Source: Wikipedia 🔗 System 🤖 Multiple Operator: Government of China Developer: Yitu; Megvii; SenseTime; Cloudwalk; China Electronics Technology Group/Hikvision Country: China Sector: Govt - police; Go vt - security Purpose: Strengthen security; Control population Technology: Facial recognition Issue: Bias/discrimination; Human/civil rights; Privacy; Surveillance Investigations, assessments, audits 👁️ New York Times. One Month, 500,000 Face Scans: How China Is Using A.I. to Profile a Minority New York Times. 单月50万次人脸识别：中国如何用AI监控维族人

Date it happened

2019-04-01

Organisation involved

Government of China

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