Too dangerous? That’s why you can no longer use Microsoft’s facial recognition AI

We recently reported on the alleged consciousness of a Google AI. But Microsoft has also issued a message on the subject artificial intelligence, which might cause a stir for some. The company, in the form of the Cognitive Services team, announced in a blog post that its own facial recognition AI is no longer made commercially available. Anyone who still wants to use features such as face recognition, emotion recognition or age recognition must now submit an application including justification. Anyone who is already a Microsoft customer for this AI is given a period of one year for this application.

Is the AI ​​too dangerous?

The blog post talks about exactly why AI is no longer being sold commercially. The focus here is on the issue of privacy. For this reason, one feature of the tool has been completely removed.

The detection of gender, age, facial features or emotions should disappear completely. Emotions in particular were a sensitive issue for the Cognitive Service team. After all, according to them, it is very difficult to define what emotions actually are in this context. Among other things, an increased risk of misuse of such a tool is the result.

Promoting stereotypes, discrimination or unjustified denial of service would be a possible outcome. As of June 21, 2022, the features are no longer available for new customers. Existing customers can still use the features until June 30, 2023 to use.