Critically Envisioning Biometric AI Futures

The project started by mapping the state of the art and different socio-technical and legal issues raised by future uses of biometric artificial intelligence systems in law enforcement. Drawing insights from this analysis, the project informed the development of a series of speculative design fictions that focused on different applications, such as live automated facial and emotion recognition or DNA phenotyping. 

The team ran a roundtable which brought together academics, government, regulators and law enforcement to critically reflect on the resulting regulatory, ethical, technical and societal implications of biometric AI use at scale. The project concluded with a report documenting insights from mapping exercise, design fiction, and roundtable. 

Dr Urquhart stated “The EU AI Act is establishing stricter regulations around high risk AI systems and there are calls to prohibit some biometric AI applications, such as police use of live facial recognition in public spaces. Recently, the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner released their Code of Practice to guide criminal justice uses of biometric data. So, it is an interesting time to look at the range of challenges posed by emerging biometric AI systems, such as emotion recognition.”