IBM drops facial recognition software amid racial profiling concerns

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has told the US Congress that the technology giant is no longer offering its facial recognition or analysis software and “firmly opposes” technology that is used for mass surveillance, racial profiling and violations of basic human rights and freedoms.
 

Krishna on Monday sent the letter to Congress outlining detailed policy proposals to advance racial equality in America, which has seen widespread protests and demonstrations against the spate of recent killing of African-Americans, including that of George Floyd by a white police officer and also against repeated police brutality against the Black community.
 

Floyd, the 46-year-old victim from Houston, was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by the white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath on May 25 in Minneapolis.
 

“In September 1953, more than a decade before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, IBM took a bold stand in favour of equal opportunity…Yet nearly seven decades later, the horrible and tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many others remind us that the fight against racism is as urgent as ever,” Krishna said in the letter.
 

The Indian-origin CEO told US lawmakers that IBM no longer offers the general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software.