Government plans for the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) risk “gradual mission creep” towards a mass surveillance society, the State’s expert group on artificial intelligence (AI) has warned.
The technology, which would allow computer systems to scan and match people’s faces in CCTV footage and free up incalculable man-hours, is due to be introduced for use by An Garda Síochána.
However, the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council (AIAC) flagged “substantial risks” in an unpublished report recently submitted to Government and seen by The Irish Times. It urged the Government not to introduce it without further testing in the context of “real world” Irish policing.
“The potential for a gradual mission creep towards an untargeted mass surveillance State is a legitimate concern,” it said.
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The nascent AIAC, established by Minister of State with responsibility for Digital Dara Calleary to provide independent expert advice on policy, met for the first time last January.
The AIAC is a 14-strong body comprising expertise in related academia, law and business, and chaired by Dr Patricia Scanlon. The report on FRT was submitted by a subgroup.
A potential introduction of FRT has sparked concerns around widespread surveillance and technology flaws that could lead to erroneous identification of suspects.
While acknowledging the potential for “significant efficiency benefits”, the AIAC report flags risks to fundamental rights and of potential misidentifications or false matches, as well as inaccuracy and bias in the system.
The council advised against deploying FRT “without thorough independent evaluation and resolution of identified risks”, and noted that simply relying on keeping a “human in the loop” was demonstrably insufficient as a safeguarding mechanism.
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Benefits of the technology set out in the report include the possibility of speeding up investigations and finding missing people with less police time and fewer personnel, but it also stressed the need for balance with civil rights.
Much of the caution arises from technical considerations. The council noted that while in controlled settings – with consistent lighting, co-operative subjects and high-quality images – FRT can deliver accurate scan results, law enforcement scenarios are rarely so ideal.
It raised the prospect of “poor lighting, different angles, and nonco-operative subjects captured by lower-quality CCTV or bodycam footage. These factors significantly degrade FRT performance”.
Such imperfect circumstances can lead to false negatives where the system fails to recognise two photos of the same person, and false positives where it incorrectly matches photos of different people.
“Accuracy in FRT is crucial, especially in law enforcement where errors can have severe consequences,” it said. “False positives can lead to wrongful suspicion, arrest, and lasting damage, while false negatives allow criminals to evade justice, undermining public safety and trust.”
The AIAC advised the Government against procuring or deploying FRT before an independent evaluation under “real-world conditions relevant to Irish law enforcement” is undertaken.
In response, the Department of Justice noted the technology would save gardaí thousands of hours of work in retrospective CCTV scanning and spare officers the “harrowing work” of manually processing images related to child sexual abuse.
A spokesman said legislation covering the technology had been subject to intense drafting and legal scrutiny, and oversight is in line with relevant EU law.
“Each use of FRT will need to be assessed as being absolutely necessary and proportionate,” he said.
“The [AIAC] advice was forwarded to the Department of Justice and has been noted by Minister McEntee. The advice provided is general in nature and does not engage specifically with the Government’s existing legislative proposals in this area contained in the An Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2023.”
He said the report would be taken into consideration during the drafting of the legislation, for which a timeline is not yet available.
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