ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3, we examine the value of face images in the application of face recognition technology. Expanding on the example of China’s camera and face recognition-assisted “social credit system” and its “algorithmic governance” goals, this chapter offers an alternative point of focus to a reading that prioritizes surveillance and governance. We focus not on the loss of privacy these systems entail but, rather, on the new modes of digital inclusion and exclusion, connection and sanction that they introduce. This chapter also explores some of the key technological components of face recognition technology, where the technology has come from, where it is tracking now and where it is headed. Built on technologies of recognition and matching, identification and sentiment analysis, the long coveted visual data of the face offers a wide range of possible applications. While many of the current applications and future prognostications relating to AI, machine learning and face recognition range from the troubling to the distinctly dystopian, we ask whether it might now be time to begin to explore face recognition for its possible social good applications, including as a form of computational responsiveness to individuals, which could incorporate explicit social inclusion interventions and considerations.
