September 2020 Bar Bulletin
By Jessica Dwyer-Moss1
Facial recognition software, once something out of science fiction, is already becoming a dystopian reality. In January, a Michigan man was arrested because an algorithm matched a photo of him to grainy security footage of a man shoplifting. Mr. Robert Williams was arrested in front of his family and neighbors. During his detention, police officers showed him a still image from the security camera. When Mr. Williams held it up next to his face for a side-by-side comparison, one of the officers remarked that “the computer got it wrong.”2 No other evidence connected him to the crime. After...