zlacker

>>vermon+(OP)
This story is really alarming because as described, the police ran a face recognition tool based on a frame of grainy security footage and got a positive hit. Does this tool give any indication of a confidence value? Does it return a list (sorted by confidence) of possible suspects, or any other kind of feedback that would indicate even to a layperson how much uncertainty there is?

The issue of face recognition algorithms performing worse on dark faces is a major problem. But the other side of it is: would police be more hesitant to act on such fuzzy evidence if the top match appeared to be a middle-class Caucasian (i.e. someone who is more likely to take legal recourse)?

>>danso+02
People are not good at understanding uncertainty and its implications, even if you put it front and center. I used to work in renewable energy consulting and I was shocked by how aggressively uncertainty estimates are ignored by those whose goals they threaten.

In this case, it's incumbent on the software vendors to ensure that less-than-certain results aren't even shown to the user. American police can't generally be trusted to understand nuance and/or do the right thing.