The police want to be able to use facial recognition in real time with the help of AI.
A proposal that could lead to racism, says lawyer Kristofer Stahre.
– There is the greatest risk for people with darker skin to be wrongly singled out, which means that AI can be perceived as racist in that respect.
National Police Chief Petra Lundh supports the proposal for facial recognition in real time that the government is currently working on. There, the method must be able to be used in cases where the crime can lead to more than four years in prison.
Lundh believes that the proposal can help the police stop serious crimes.
– Sometimes we have a very good picture of who it is. Had we been able to use facial recognition, I think we would have been able to prevent or not end up in the situation where many crimes can be committed, she says in Ekot’s Saturday interview.
Can be perceived as racist
Now the lawyer Kristofer Stahre criticizes the proposal. He refers to a British report from 2019, where 81 percent of people were misidentified by AI.
– I am worried about what consequences it may have for the Swedish people.
Stahre highlights that facial recognition through AI has been banned in parts of the United States due to the wrong people being singled out.
– The biggest criticism is that the incorrect designations are made above all on people with dark skin, which means that AI can be perceived as racist in that respect.
He explains why the AI reacts the way it does.
– There, AI has a harder time identifying unique touchpoints, which means that you are wrongly singled out for that reason.
Pregnant woman was detained for a month
Stahre cites an example in the US where a pregnant woman was detained for a month after being singled out by an AI camera, before it was clear that she was innocent.
– Of course we have to trust the authorities, at the same time we have to remember that in this case the authorities consist of an AI that has no thought of consequences and when people have to quality-assure this, mistakes are also made.