OAKLAND, CA –
Microsoft said Tuesday it will stop selling technology that guesses one’s emotions based on facial images and will no longer provide unrestricted access to facial recognition technology.
The action reflects the efforts of leading cloud providers to master sensitive technologies on their own, as lawmakers in the United States and Europe continue to weigh comprehensive legal restrictions.
At least since last year, Microsoft has been reviewing whether emotion recognition systems are rooted in science.
“These efforts raised important questions about confidentiality, the lack of consensus on the definition of ’emotions’ and the inability to summarize the relationship between facial expression and emotional state in different uses, regions and demographics,” said Sarah Bird, key group manager. in Microsoft Azure’s artificial intelligence department, says a blog post.
Existing customers will have one year before losing access to artificial intelligence tools that aim to extract emotion, gender, age, smile, facial hair, hair and makeup.
Alphabet Inc’s Google Cloud made a similar assessment last year, Reuters reported for the first time. Google blocked 13 planned emotions from its emotion reading tool and reviewed four existing ones, such as Joy and Sorrow. He weighed a new system that would describe movements as frowning and smiling, without trying to tie them to emotion.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Microsoft also said customers must now be approved to use face recognition services, which can allow people to access websites or open locked doors by scanning faces.
The company urged customers to avoid situations that violate confidentiality or in which the technology may fight, such as the identification of minors, but did not explicitly prohibit these uses.
(Report by Paresh Dave; Editing by David Gregorio)
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