A fugitive was arrested after China's AI-powered facial recognition system alerted authorities of his presence in a crowd of 60,000 people attending Hong Kong pop star Jacky Cheung's pop concert in Nanchang, Jiangxi province.
The 31 year-old man known as his family name Ao, was wanted for unspecified economic crimes. He was reportedly surprised when police caught him, as he had traveled miles with his wife and friends to see the event. He thought that hiding among tens of thousands of crowd would keep him safe. But apparently, his face was caught on camera.
"Ao was suspected to be involved in an economic crime and was listed on a national online system," said police officer Li Jin. "He was very shocked and had a blank face when we caught him."
Chinese authorities have embraced facial recognition systems and AI-powered surveillance monitoring. What this means, people appearing in public should be caught on camera. Their face will be tracked and identified by AI in real time.
China is seen as the world leader in adopting AI using facial recognition technology for various uses, including law enforcement. The initiatives include the creation of the world’s most powerful AI-powered facial recognition system by law enforcement agencies, first launched by the Ministry of Public Security in 2015.
Using this ability, the government that has unlimited power on the use of the AI, can gather and process data based on its citizens' activities. For example, using it to easy make people in paying at some restaurants and boarding planes after their faces are scanned for identification.
Disobeying the laws and caught on camera, China's citizens can be fined, or have their social credit lowered. This would eventually ban them from public transportation, car rentals, airports, financing options, and making large purchases, among other punishments.
Concerning privacy, most people in China accept the fact they're being recorded in public. But that’s probably because the general public doesn’t yet understand the potential of privacy breach and implications of AI being continuously fed with their data.
