Clearview AI in Ukraine. The company provides free access to its conversion service?

The American company Clearview AI convinced us with its activity that it is better not to publish your image on the web, because even on the basis of the photos we share, the facial recognition system is able to “learn” to recognize us. The startup’s topic hit the spotlight again after allegedly the Clearview AI service in Ukraine began to help defenders.

According to the CEO of Clearview AI, if the facial recognition system is no longer used in Ukraine, it will soon be there

It really boils down to statements by the company’s CEO Hoan Ton-That, who revealed to Reuters that Clearview AI offered the Ukrainian defense ministry free use of its software, but denied giving it to Russia. In practice, the Ukrainian military may use the company’s controversial face recognition technology to catch Russian agents and identify those who died during the ongoing war.

The controversial tool could therefore become a tool for direct fight against evil, although it is still difficult to defend the fact that it collects photos into a database without the knowledge of its “victims”. It is worth noting that although it is not clear whether the Ukrainian military is actively using the software, according to the CEO’s words, the Ukrainian government agencies plan to start using the technology in the coming days.

Also read: What is the NLAW, or anti-tank guided missile launcher?

As a reminder, face recognition works by measuring the geometry of the face and comparing the obtained results with photos in the database (e.g. downloaded from the Internet without the consent of the authors themselves). Therefore, it is not so much a simple technology that is easy to scale and improve, which, together with the personal data attached to the photos, allows, for example, the police to directly identify the wanted person.