International

Ukraine uses facial recognition to identify dead Russian soldiers, minister says

By Paresh Dave

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) -Ukraine is utilizing facial recognition software program to establish the our bodies of Russian troopers killed in fight and to hint their households to tell them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice prime minister advised Reuters.

Reuters solely reported that Ukraine’s Ministry of Protection this month started utilizing know-how from Clearview AI, a New York-based facial recognition supplier that finds photos on the internet that match faces from uploaded pictures. It was not clear at the moment how the know-how could be used.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister who additionally runs the ministry of digital transformation, advised Reuters Ukraine had been utilizing Clearview AI software program to search out the social media accounts of lifeless Russian troopers.

From there, authorities are messaging family members to make preparations to gather the physique, he stated.

“As a courtesy to the moms of these troopers, we’re disseminating this data over social media to a minimum of let households know that they they’ve misplaced their sons and to then allow them to come back to gather their our bodies,” Fedorov stated in an interview, talking by way of a translator.

Fedorov declined to specify the variety of our bodies recognized by facial recognition however he stated the share of acknowledged people claimed by households has been “excessive.” Reuters was unable to independently affirm this.

Opponents of facial recognition, together with civil rights teams, have decried Ukraine’s adoption of Clearview, citing the opportunity of misidentification.

Clearview is battling a lawsuit in U.S. federal courtroom in Chicago filed by customers underneath the Illinois Biometric Info Privateness Act. The continued case issues whether or not the corporate’s gathering of photos from the web violated privateness regulation.

Clearview says its actions have been authorized. It says its face matches ought to solely be a place to begin in investigations.

Fedorov stated Ukraine was not utilizing the know-how to establish its personal troops killed in battle. He didn’t specify why.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Inside Affairs didn’t reply to requests for remark. It has been overseeing the nation’s Look For Your Personal venture, a Telegram channel the place it posts photos of unidentified captured or killed Russian troopers and invitations claims from family members.

The Ukrainian authorities has a web based kind https://docs.google.com/types/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNcHV6cob4f8QHc90QnpAihMsioOOroSQWNAVHCmwDelHL8w/viewform the place Russian family members can submit a declare to gather a physique. Fedorov didn’t present particulars of how the our bodies are being returned to households and Reuters couldn’t independently decide that.

Ukraine’s navy has stated some 15,000 Russian troopers have been killed since Russia invaded on Feb 24. Russia has stated its casualties are a lot decrease throughout what it describes as a “particular navy operation” to demilitarize Ukraine.

The Kremlin didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for touch upon Ukraine’s use of Clearview.

Clearview, which supplied its service freed from cost to Ukraine after the Russian invasion, has stated its search engine contains over 2 billion photos from VKontakte, a well-liked Russian social media service.

VKontakte didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Facial recognition is only one of many instruments Ukraine has adopted without cost as Western companies come to its help, Fedorov stated. For example, his ministry is now utilizing cloud companies from Amazon.com Inc to retailer “essential information,” he stated, with out elaborating.

Amazon declined to touch upon Fedorov’s remarks.

Richard Bassed, head of the forensic drugs division at Monash College in Australia, stated fingerprints, dental information and DNA stay the most typical methods of confirming somebody’s id.

Acquiring pre-death samples of such information from enemy fighters is difficult, although, opening the door to modern methods equivalent to facial recognition.

However clouded eyes and injured and expressionless faces probably make facial recognition unreliable on the lifeless, stated Bassed, who has been researching the know-how.

In the USA, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System stated it has not adopted automated facial recognition as a result of the know-how will not be at present typically accepted within the forensic group.

(Reporting by Paresh DaveEditing by Daniel Flynn and Lincoln Feast.)



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