Microsoft banned U.S. police departments from using the Azure OpenAI Service on facial recognition systems, including OpenAI's text and speech analyzing models.
The new policy stated that the service must not be used on any real-time facial recognition technology by any law enforcement from body to dash-mounted cameras.
Microsoft Revises Policy for Azure OpenAI Service
In an updated Code of Conduct for Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft announced that the AI platform should not be used to categorize people based on their biometric data that will reveal their affiliations and other characteristics.
Moreover, it must not be used for any ongoing surveillance or real-time identification. The policy also explicitly detailed that the U.S. police departments are not allowed to utilize the service for facial recognition purposes.
"We prohibit the use of our service for processing content or generating content that can inflict harm on individuals or society. Our content policies are intended to improve the safety of our platform," the company wrote. The rules apply to all models created by OpenAI and Azure OpenAI like GPT-3, GPT4, GPT-4 Turbo DALL-E 2, DALL-E 3, and more.
AI's Potential Misuse of Facial Recognition Technology
Earlier this month, Axon, a military and law enforcement weapon maker, launched a new product that used OpenAI's GPT-4. According to reports, the company took advantage of the feature that summarizes audio from body cameras.
While it was not specified whether GPT-4 was used via Azure OpenAI Service, the AI company had previously banned the use of its models on facial recognition using APIs.
As for Microsoft, the company emphasized that its AI models should not be used to infer a person's emotional state, age, and gender based on facial expressions.
"Azure OpenAI Service prohibits identification or verification of individual identities using media containing people's faces by any user, including by or for state or local police in the United States," the company stated.
