复杂的面部识别技术是中国许多反乌托邦安全计划的核心。中国的面部识别系统拥有2亿台监控摄像机——是美国的四倍多——可以跟踪***族***少数民族成员，封锁住宅区的入口，并通过在广告牌上展示他们的脸来羞辱债务人。

我经常把这些故事放在这里，因为它们似乎不可避免地要去美国，至少是以某种形式。但在此之前，公共和私人利益联盟正试图敲响警钟。

AI Now是一个隶属于纽约大学的组织，其成员包括谷歌和微软等科技公司的员工。在周四发表的一篇新论文中，该组织呼吁各国**在人工智能和面部识别技术破坏基本公民自由之前，对其使用进行监管。作者写道：

Facial recognition and affect recognition need stringent regulation to protect the public interest. Such regulation should include national laws that require strong oversight, clear limitati***, and public transparency. Communities should have the right to reject the application of these technologies in both public and private contexts. Mere public notice of their use is not sufficient, and there should be a high threshold for any c***ent, given the dangers of oppressive and continual mass surveillance.

人工智能研究人员现在特别关注所谓的“情感识别”——并试图利用机器学习识别人们的情感，并可能操纵它们。

“现在不再存在问责问题了，”AI现在的联合创始人Meredith Whittaker在谷歌工作，他告诉彭博社，“这是我们要做的。”

当天晚些时候，微软总裁布拉德·史密斯（Brad Smith）在布鲁金斯学会（Brookings Institution）的一次演讲中回应了其中一些担忧：

We believe it’s important for governments in 2019 to start adopting laws to regulate this technology. The facial recognition genie, so to speak, is just emerging from the bottle. Unless we act, we risk waking up five years from now to find that facial recognition services have spread in ways that exacerbate societal issues. By that time, these challenges will be much more difficult to bottle back up.

In particular, we don’t believe that the world will be best served by a commercial race to the bottom, with tech companies forced to choose between social resp***ibility and market success. We believe that the only way to protect against this race to the bottom is to build a floor of resp***ibility that supports healthy market competition. And a solid floor requires that we ensure that this technology, and the organizati*** that develop and use it, are governed by the rule of law.

该报发布前一天，有消息称特勤局计划在白宫外部署面部识别系统。据推测，该机构所称的“测试”不会就此结束：

The ACLU says that the current test seems appropriately narrow, but that it “crosses an important line by opening the door to the mass, suspicionless scrutiny of Americans on public sidewalks” — like the road outside the White House. (The program’s technology is supposed to ****yze faces up to 20 yards from the camera.) “Face recognition is one of the most dangerous biometrics from a privacy standpoint because it can so easily be expanded and abused — including by being deployed on a mass scale without people’s knowledge or permission.”

也许美国人对大**的长期偏执会阻止更多的中国式举措生根发芽。但我也可以想象这样一种情景：一位民粹主义、极权主义的领导人不断地援引恐怖主义和未经检查的非法移民这两个幽灵，围绕着监控技术赢得民众的支持。

感觉这是一次值得一谈的谈话。