Alexander Tyulkanov, associate researcher at the Center

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roblems that artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition technologies have brought and may bring. The experts also touched upon the topic of illegal and excessive collection of personal data.

for International Intellectual Property Studies at the University of Strasbourg, recalled an artificial intelligence error that resulted in the arrest of a person.

Last December, Moscow's denmark whatsapp number database Zamoskvoretsky Court released hydrologist Alexander Tsvetkov, who was accused of several murders, from a pretrial detention center. His arrest was linked to a biometric system error: in February 2023, when he was flying out on an expedition, the airport camera determined that he matched the wanted criminal's photofit by 50-60%. Alexander Tsvetkov was released only after the president drew attention to the case.

However, in general, artificial intelligence is not yet very developed in Russia and is almost never publicly used in government information systems, noted Ivan Begtin, head of Open Data Armenia and the Information Culture ANO.

"Face recognition is not directly related to AI," Ivan Begtin explained. "AI occurs when much more complex information is extracted from image recognition. This is not yet the case, unfortunately or fortunately. Unfortunately, in areas where it is necessary, such as medicine. There are experiments with the use of algorithms, but quite carefully. Fortunately, this is not yet the case in issues related to image recognition. However, there is another scenario: we simply do not know about it, because the Russian state has become much less transparent."

World cases
Ksenia Bakina, a lawyer at Privacy International, spoke about the UK's experience with facial recognition technology. "The use of this technology in the UK has been growing for seven years, since 2016," said Ksenia Bakina. "A recent report showed that in 2021, 19.8 thousand retrospective searches were conducted using this technology by law enforcement agencies, and in 2022 - already 85 thousand. That is, we see a high speed with which it is growing."

According to a study in which Privacy International surveyed 100 members of the UK Parliament, the country's authorities are poorly informed about facial recognition technology. It turned out that most MPs do not know where these technologies are used and what threats to human rights they pose. 70% of MPs do not know whether facial recognition technologies are used in their constituency. At least 60% of MPs either believe that the country has a law regulating its use or do not know about it (in fact, there is no law). 65% are unaware of the threats the technology poses to human rights.

Other conference participants spoke about cases in which AI has violated people's rights. Anastasia Kruope, a junior researcher at Human Rights Watch, cited last year's Human Rights Watch study, in which she describes how, due to faulty algorithms, people on the poverty line did not receive the benefits they needed. This happened in Jordan as part of the Takaful program, which was organized by the World Bank and the Jordanian National Relief Fund. "My colleagues found that many people who are truly on the poverty line or really need payments are left behind. They are not provided with such payments or they are disproportionate to their needs," said Anastasia Kruope.

She also spoke about the parliamentary elections in Hungary in April 2022. The government collected data from citizens who used public services, and then the ruling party used this data during the election campaign. As part of it, Facebook* users received targeted advertising, meaning the party had an advantage, since the opposition candidates did not have the data.

Baurzhan Rakhmetov, assistant professor at KAZGUU University named after M.S. Narikbayev, spoke about cases with Amazon Ring cameras. This is an intelligent video camera system that allows you to see who is behind the front door. Baurzhan Rakhmetov pointed out that the system is positioned as a security tool, but when used, there is a threat to privacy: the call is recorded without the consent of the callers, and people passing by the door can be within the range of the device. According to Baurzhan Rakhmetov, there were cases when Amazon used photographs of alleged offenders in advertising, filmed on cameras, without the consent of people.

"There was a case when overly vigilant neighbors, seeing an African-American ringing the doorbell, reported it to the police. It later turned out that the man was a realtor and was doing work. Nevertheless, the police stopped him," Baurzhan Rakhmetov said about another incident.

“We know that technology can be used both for the benefit of society and for control,” concluded Baurzhan Rakhmetov.

* Facebook is owned by Meta, a company recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation.