A sinister camera system that uses AI and facial recognition software to detect emotions has been tested on China’s Uyghur Muslim population.
The BBC reported that a software engineer claimed to have installed the systems in police stations throughout China’s Xinjiang province, home to a sizeable population of Uyghur Muslims and concentration camps which human rights group Human Rights Watch claims are used to indoctrinate and abuse Uyghur inmates.
The AI system is allegedly used to detect and analyse minute changes in facial expressions and skin pores, generating a pie chart with data from the AI system which supposedly indicates a person’s state of mind through various colours. Red allegedly suggests a ‘negative’ or ‘anxious’ state of mind.
The software engineer, speaking to the BBC, claimed that: We placed the emotion detection camera 3m from the subject. It is similar to a lie detector but far more advanced technology.
"Your wrists are locked in place by metal restraints, and [the] same applies to your ankles."
The engineer claimed that the software is intended for “pre-judgement without any credible evidence”.
The abhorrent development and use of the system ties in with comments made by Microsoft president Brad Smith, who warned that George Orwell’s 1984 “could come to pass in 2024” if laws to protect the public against artificial intelligence are not passed.
Speaking to BBC Panorama, Smith said: “If we don’t enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead, and it’s going to be very difficult to catch up.
“I’m constantly reminded of George Orwell’s lessons in his book 1984. You know the fundamental story…was about a government who could see everything that everyone did and hear everything that everyone said all the time. Well, that didn’t come to pass in 1984, but if we’re not careful that could come to pass in 2024.”
Pictured: Uyghurs learn Chinese language at reeducation camp in Xinjiang, China. Journalists were able to visit the "vocational training center" in Wensu County, Aksu Prefecture in Xinjiang. Photo credit: Azamat Imanaliev, Shutterstock