1 minute read
Health Administration
College of Nursing & Health Professions
Diem Quynh Thuy Bui
Advertisement
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sharrona Pearl Health Administration College of Arts & Sciences Center for Science, Technology, and Society
Masked in the Age of Facial Recognition: A Comparative Case Study of Hong Kong & the U.S.
Facial recognition technology has become almost ubiquitous and practically invisible. In daily life, we can use our faces to unlock our phones, log into our bank account, approve transactions touch-free, and identify others in a variety of contexts, including criminal justice. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the process less seamless. More specifically, the face mask has interfered with facial recognition AI, preventing it from recognizing masked faces. This was an obstacle until companies in Asian countries provided the new feature of masked face identification to be in immediate effect in various settings. AI used in the U.S. has yet to apply this capability. In this comparative case study, I argue that Hong Kong’s fast AI progression is not a reflection of its technology being superior to the U.S. Hong Kong’s societal, ethical, and political climate is what allows for existing software to be marketed as ‘masked face’ identification, a trend that has been resisted in the US.
2021 STAR Scholar
