AI For Good

Everybody knows that artificial intelligence (AI) for facial recognition is a thing now. Chances are that you use it to unlock your phone. There is also a robust conversation about AI ethics. Do you want your neighbor’s doorbell to recognize you? Some foreign governments use facial recognition to track their citizens.

Healthy debate around these topics is key to societal norms. The truth is, new technologies can be powerful tools, and can be wielded for good or for ill. Even as we define the art of the possible, we must grapple with the consequences.

At STR, we are technology pioneers – we are constantly pushing the frontier of what science and technology can deliver. But we do this with an aim of societal benefit.

“At STR, we believe that we will achieve greatest impact when we align our passion with purpose.”

We’re proud of our technology. We have developed AI algorithms that lead the world in their ability to recognize faces — even in the presence of confounding factors such as variable head pose, shadows, partial obscuration and changing expressions that stymie many commercial approaches. But we are also proud of how our technology is used.

As one application, our AI technology platform is used to fight the unconscionable and hideous crime of child sexual and physical exploitation. As the internet and dark web makes it ever easier to traffic illicit material, technology can help provide a countervailing force. AI can scan the volumes of seized and scraped material to identify the connections — victims, perpetrators — that humans alone couldn’t hope to — clustering like with like. AI can generate the clues and evidence needed to stop these crimes.

STR has worked with a Government customer and a third party auditor to vet its technology in this application, and demonstrate its world-class algorithmic recognition performance.

At STR, we believe that we will achieve greatest impact when we align our passion with purpose.