Ukraine gained access to a new form of defense in its fight against Russia late last week thanks to free access to the same facial recognition technology used by law enforcement.
As Reuters reports, American facial recognition company Clearview AI is allowing Ukraine access to its technology and photo database. As well as fighting Russian forces in the streets, Ukraine's ministry of defense is weary of Russian operatives attempting to infiltrate its ranks. By employing Clearview's tech, it should be possible to quickly vet anyone passing through security checkpoints as a potential threat.
The system offers access to over 10 billion photos, more than 2 billion of which are from Russian social media service VKontakte. The same technology and access is not being offered to Russia by Clearview.
As well as bolstering security, the facial recognition system is expected to allow the dead to be more easily identified and could potentially help refugees reunite with family members separated while feeling to safety.
Clearview AI's mission is to "responsibly used facial recognition to protect children, victims of financial fraud, and other crimes that afflict our communities," according to CEO Hoan Ton-That, but the company has caused controversy and privacy fears. The way in which facial data is collected by Clearview spurred an ACLU lawsuit in 2020, while Meta has demanded the company stop harvesting its data from Facebook.