NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A small AI company has introduced facial recognition technology to law enforcement, billionaires, and businesses, raising concerns about privacy. Kashmir Hill, a New York Times tech reporter, investigates Clearview AI, an app claiming to identify individuals with 99 percent accuracy from a single photo. This tool can reveal extensive personal information, potentially leading to stalking and authoritarian control. Hill chronicles the rise of Clearview AI, founded by Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, and its controversial backers, including Charles C. Johnson and Peter Thiel. While tech giants like Google and Facebook deemed such a tool too radical, Clearview moved forward, marketing its app to private investors and thousands of law enforcement agencies globally. The power of facial recognition technology has been escalating for years, already implicated in wrongful arrests in the U.S. Without regulation, it could enable oppressive surveillance similar to that seen in China and Russia. This gripping narrative serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need for vigilance and regulation to protect individual privacy rights, echoing the sentiments of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis regarding “the right to be let alone.”
