Facial recognition technology (FRT) is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) used to verify a person’s identity using their face through videos, photos, or real-time analysis. Law enforcement, education, and most recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have started using FRT. However, FRT still faces several issues with user experience, privacy, racial bias, and ethics.
A recent case study by Dr. Aimee Roundtree, Associate Dean of Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Professor in the Master of Arts in Technical Communication program at Texas State University investigates how partnerships between industry and academia can find people-centered ways to develop ethical FRT.
In “Facial Recognition UX: A Case Study of Industry-Academic Partnerships to Promote User-Centered Ethics in Facial Recognition” published in SIGDOC, she shared findings from research sponsored by the NEC Foundation, a global leader in FRT, on moral and cultural aspects of facial recognition, biometrics, and big data analytics.
For example, the article shares preliminary findings from a meta-analysis of public opinion surveys. There were mixed opinions about FRT when used in school settings, consumer interactions, and security. Concerns about privacy were also important, as well as FRT’s potential ability to impact students’ academic performance, create unequal power dynamics, and negatively affect BIPOC and gender minorities. Interviews with students are underway to help develop people-centered guidelines for developing and using FRT.
The article reports that collaborations with industry may offer several benefits, such as opportunities to share public concerns with corporations and spotlight user needs. It also helps researchers consider ethical, professional, and academic concerns in partnering with corporations to conduct research.
Understanding how research partnerships between companies and academia could influence findings can help determine how future researchers proceed with studies about FRT. The technology’s impact and lingering questions are too important to ignore, especially among minority and vulnerable populations.