Scarface is roaming South Africa, keeping an eye out for criminal activity. At least, that’s what its purveyors, the Bidvest Protea Coin group, claim its facial recognition system is being used for.
The company has detailed how its Scarface artificial intelligence (AI) system works. It’s… possibly a little concerning, given the current attitude to facial recognition in countries that aren’t China.
‘Say hello to my little friend’ – Scarface, probably
Scarface isn’t anything physical. It’s a software tool, designed to work in conjunction with cameras. If you live in SA’s major centres, you’ve likely seen surveillance cameras increasingly turning up. It’s hardware like this that’ll let Bidvest Protea Coin’s little friend do its thing.
And that thing is stopping crime before it starts, apparently. It might not have worked out so well for Tom Cruise (he got better), but South Africa should manage to make it work. Right?
Well… that’s the plan. According to Bidvest, “…crime often involves scouting, which takes place over a period, Scarface stops that process at the early stages before it matures with detailed and often classified information, by allowing early detection and/or apprehension of transgressors. Overall the system provides increased risk mitigation through a proactive approach to suspect identification.”
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But in order to work as intended, it needs access to a database of biometric information. An accurate database. It’s already got one, of a sort. It’s used to detect the presence of known illegal miners, or zama zamas, in some areas of South Africa.
This, coupled with high-resolution cameras and the autonomous Scarface system, lets the group identify if there’s a ‘person of interest’ in the area. The system is apparently quick, and accurate — though accuracy rates aren’t mentioned. Still, it’s great… until it isn’t. The company doesn’t explain how it will deal with false positives, where it gets its facial data from, how broadly the program will roll out, and how the data collected will be managed. Because, yes, non-criminal facial data will probably be collected by, or be resident in, Project Scarface.
We’ve reached out to Bidvest Protea Coin to ask a few of the more… difficult questions. Stuff will publish any response in a new article.
Source: BusinessTech