Microsoft limits access to its emotion recognition AI tools
Microsoft has announced that it will no longer sell face recognition technologies. The company also restricts access to facial recognition AI tools.
Many experts have long expressed criticism of the project. They state that AI cannot actually determine emotion from someone's facial movements, since the interpretation of a person's facial movements highly depends on the context. Northeastern neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett says that the company's technology generally identifies a scowl as the expression of anger, while it might be the sign of concentration. There are many more examples of how AI technologies fail to read emotions in the face.
Microsoft will provide no access to certain features of Azure Face service to new users. Current customers can use this functionality until June 30th, 2023. To be able to continue using the features, clients will have to submit an application describing where and how it will be applied. Furthermore, Microsoft will remove automated tools that predict a person's age, gender, emotions, hair, facial hair, and makeup from Azure Face. However, it should be mentioned that Microsoft will continue using these tools in the Seeing AI app made for visually-impaired people.
