{"id":36712,"date":"2018-11-13T21:11:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T02:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/sensetime-and-public-safety\/"},"modified":"2018-11-14T21:38:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T02:38:24","slug":"sensetime-and-public-safety","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/sensetime-and-public-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"SenseTime and Public Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Apr 9th<\/sup>, 2018, Beijing, China based company SenseTime announced that it had raised $600m from the Alibaba Group and other investors at a valuation of more than $4bn [1]. With the announcement, the company became the world\u2019s most valuable artificial intelligence startup, and further underscored the gravity of the Chinese government\u2019s national policy announcement just a year prior to become the world\u2019s leader in the research, development, and commercialization of artificial intelligence technologies by 2030.<\/p>\n

Founded in October 2014 by Dr. Xiao\u2019ou Tang, a Professor of Information Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, SenseTime has developed commercial products that leverage deep learning and machine learning in the development of computer vision to replicate tasks typically performed by trained human eyes. These tasks include facial, image, and text recognition, video image analysis, and image and video editing. SenseTime\u2019s core platform is currently being utilized by more than 400 companies across a wide range of industries and verticals in applications that range from the playful to the mission critical [2]. One of SenseTime\u2019s customers, Meitu, a Chinese selfie app, allows users to modify their appearances and take funny or more attractive-looking selfies using SenseTime\u2019s image and video editing capabilities [3]. In comparison, China\u2019s fintech companies leverage SenseTime\u2019s platform as a mission-critical identity-verification system for opening an account. For China\u2019s 4,000 peer-to-peer lenders, SenseTime\u2019s identity-verification product SenseFace 3.0, phased out the days-long manual identity verification process that bottle-necked loan disbursement in online lending [4].<\/p>\n

Exhibit 1: SenseTime provides Rong360 with face identification (including liveness detection), identity verification, and ID card and credit card recognition functions. [4]<\/figcaption><\/figure>However, perhaps the most visible and controversial client of SenseTime is the Chinese government itself. Since its early days as a company, SenseTime\u2019s platform and core technologies has been used by the Chinese law enforcement as part of its national surveillance program. SenseTime processes video captured by China\u2019s nearly 170 million CCTV cameras across the country to help police officers identify suspects and root out potential criminals by matching faces identified in video with corresponding faces on government-issued IDs [5]. In 2016, SenseTime Head of Product Development Yang Fan claimed that police in Chongqing, powered by its technology, identified 69 suspects and caught 14 fugitives within 40 days. “What we’ve accomplished happens only in movies\u201d [6].<\/p>\n

SenseTime\u00a0actual case comparison results Exhibit 2 [7]<\/figcaption><\/figure>For SenseTime, China\u2019s police forces and surveillance footage serve as an important source of training data for the company\u2019s platform and product development. While SenseTime\u2019s efforts thus far have centered on identity verification and image recognition, the company remains excited about developing more products that can improve public safety by automatically recognizing incidents when they happen and alerting the police. For example, tracking car number plates of stolen vehicles, automatically recognizing traffic accidents as they happen, and locating lost children and senior citizens in public spaces [8]. Products created for public safety use could then be adopted for commercial use cases, such as cashier-less shopping and consumer big data analysis in physical retail. [9]<\/p>\n

Questions of privacy and the potential for government and corporate misuse have consistently dodged the company since its early days of product development and commercialization. Civil libertarians within China and internationally argue that SenseTime\u2019s technologies have been used to track minorities in places like the Uighur region of Xinjiang and religious worshipers attending church in the coastal city of Wenzhou [10]. In response, the company has often attempted to publicly absolve itself from the use of its products by its clients. As SenseTime\u2019s PR manager Franky Chan states: \u201cSenseTime mainly provides customers with algorithms and technology to process their data. We do not obtain, and have no control of, the data from customers. By nature, AI is only a tool, it depends on whether the user uses it for good or bad causes.\u201d [11]<\/p>\n

SenseTime\u2019s response to these criticisms indicates that companies developing machine-enabled products within the image \/ video space need to strike a balance between efficiency and privacy. Instead of evading conversations on the potential misuse of its products, the company instead could proactively work with activists, policy makers, and industry actors to incorporate some of these concerns into the company\u2019s product development by explicitly creating safeguards within its products that prevent misuse. Furthermore, the company\u2019s public perception could be strengthened with additional transparency and disclosure on where, when, and how its products have been used in law enforcement actions within China and globally. Lastly, given its broad social ramifications, SenseTime could work in conjunction with civil society and corporate actors to help define and enforce laws governing the acceptable use of its technology both within China and globally.<\/p>\n

As AI and Machine Learning technologies transform every profession, industry, and society, we will continue to be confronted by the ethical implications and consequences of these innovations. This raises the question: Are companies responsible for the misuse of their products? Furthermore, how should companies, if possible, safeguard themselves from such misuse?<\/p>\n

(787 words)<\/p>\n

[1] Bloomberg, \u201cChina Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World\u201d https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-04-09\/sensetime-snags-alibaba-funding-at-a-record-3-billion-valuation<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[2] Quartz. \u201cThe billion-dollar, Alibaba-backed AI company that\u2019s quietly watching people in China\u201d https:\/\/qz.com\/1248493\/sensetime-the-billion-dollar-alibaba-backed-ai-company-thats-quietly-watching-everyone-in-china\/<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[3] Jiayang Fan, \u201cChina\u2019s Selfie Obsession\u201d, The New Yorker<\/em>, December 25, 2017, https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/12\/18\/chinas-selfie-obsession, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

[4] SenseTime. Customer Cases. https:\/\/www.sensetime.com\/cases#3<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[5] Josh Chin and Liza Lin. \u201cChina\u2019s All-Seeing Surveillance State is Reading Its Citizen\u2019s Faces\u201d Wall Street Journal<\/em>. https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-all-seeing-surveillance-state-feared-in-the-west-is-a-reality-in-china-1498493020<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[6] , Shu-Ching Jean Chen \u201cThe Faces Behind China\u2019s Artificial Intelligence Unicorn\u201d Forbes<\/em>. https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/shuchingjeanchen\/2018\/03\/07\/the-faces-behind-chinas-omniscient-video-surveillance-technology\/#60d06bbc4afc<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[7] Sohu.com. “性视界ing for pictures” to judge intelligence AI to help criminal investigation\u201d http:\/\/www.sohu.com\/a\/163629793_99963310<\/a>, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

[8] Sebastian Moss. \u201cChina’s SenseTime, the world’s most valuable AI startup, plans five supercomputers\u201d https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/news\/chinas-sensetime-the-worlds-most-valuable-ai-startup-plans-five-supercomputers\/<\/a>, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

[9] Suning. \u201cSuning Announces Investment in SenseTime to Further Deploy Smart Retail Strategy With AI Innovation\u201d https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/suning-announces-investment-in-sensetime-to-further-deploy-smart-retail-strategy-with-ai-innovation-300628017.html<\/a>, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

[10] Josh Chin and Liza Lin. \u201cChina\u2019s All-Seeing Surveillance State is Reading Its Citizen\u2019s Faces\u201d Wall Street Journal<\/em>. https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-all-seeing-surveillance-state-feared-in-the-west-is-a-reality-in-china-1498493020<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

[11] Newstateman. \u201cSenseTime: How the world\u2019s most valuable AI startup in changing China,\u201d https:\/\/tech.newstatesman.com\/emerging-technologies\/sensetime-ai-startup-china<\/a>, accessed November 2018<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cities and countries already have begun to deploy AI and ML technologies for public safety and security. On one hand machine learning applications in image and video recognition can help law enforcement officials in detecting criminal activities and efficiently prevent acts that endanger public safety. On the other hand, without thoughtful safeguards, the misuse of these technologies by law enforcement poses sobering human rights risks. Using SenseTime as a case study, this article discusses how China's most valuable AI company, SenseTime, has partnered with government authorities to accelerate product development, why its partnership with the Chinese state is potentially problematic, and how the company can safeguard itself from the misuse of its product. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11866,"featured_media":36713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[154,346,2461,2264,5155,2297,5156,853],"class_list":["post-36712","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-machine-learning","category-machine-vision","category-police","category-public-safety","category-security","category-surveillance","category-video","hck-taxonomy-organization-sensetime","hck-taxonomy-industry-technology","hck-taxonomy-country-china"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/rc-tom-challenge-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nSenseTime and Public Safety - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/sensetime-and-public-safety\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SenseTime and Public Safety - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cities and countries already have begun to deploy AI and ML technologies for public safety and security. 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