Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Technology
Poppy Bilderbeck
US technology company Clearview has claimed that Ukraine is using its AI facial recognition to identify Russian attackers and identify the dead.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border on 24 February as part of a 'special military operation' in Ukraine, Clearview's chief executive, Hoan Ton-That, sent a letter to Kyiv offering to help.
As of Saturday, 19 March, Clearview has given Ukraine free access to its AI search engine and its extensive database of photos related to the Kremlin.
Russia has not been offered access to the technology.
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Clearview has a database of more than 10 billion photographs, and Ukraine now has access to more than two billion images from Russian social media service Vkontakte, the founder of the technology company told Reuters.
Ton-That noted that the technology can help identify the faces of the dead even if there is damage to the individual's face, which can make the process a lot easier than trying to match fingerprints.
While a 2021 paper titled 'Automatic Face Recognition for Forensic Identification of Persons Deceased in Humanitarian Emergencies,' backed up Ton-That's claim, the US Department of Energy reported that 'recognition rates with these methods are greatly impacted by the degree to which decomposition has occurred'.
However, Ton-That also explained that the technology could be used to help identify Russian attackers, reunite refugees with their families and help distill any fake social media posts or messages – such as a series of viral videos that have been posted onto TikTok, which have since proven to be fake.
Yesterday, 23 March, Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister and minister of the Ukrainian Digital Transformation Ministry, confirmed that Ukraine will use the technology to identify the dead and inform Russian people of their losses, as per Forbes.
In a post to Telegram, he stated that the aim of the technology use is to 'dispel the myth of a ‘special operation’ in which there are ‘no conscripts’ and ‘no one dies''.
On Twitter, he wrote: "A month ago, we all worked on FaceID and CRM systems to process calls for eServices. Now, we work on automatic identification of occupiers' corpses and autodial RU subscribers to tell the truth about the war. We have all changed. And we all do different things. Glory to Ukraine!"
However, Clearview has come under fire for taking images from the web, and has been accused by the UK and Australia of having violated privacy rights.
Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project in New York, has also issued a warning over the accuracy of the AI technology.
He flagged how the misidentification of individuals could lead to further civilian fatalities. "We’re going to see well-intentioned technology backfiring and harming the very people it’s supposed to help," he cautioned.
Ton-That reflected that the technology should stay within the legal standards for humanitarian treatment during the war and Geneva Conventions. He also stressed that it should not be the only method used to identify certain individuals.
Clearview isn't the only technology company that has offered support to Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.
In the modern age, where cyber warfare is a growing risk – with US President Joe Biden having warned Americans about a potential cyber attack from Russia – cybersecurity tools and internet hardware among other technological support has been pledged to Ukraine by various businesses across the West.
Despite the positivity of being able to identify the dead for the person's family, Cahn concluded: "Once you introduce these systems and the associated databases to a war zone, you have no control over how it will be used and misused."
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information