According to reports by the BBC, China wants to use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor Muslim minorities such as the Uyghurs more closely. The software should recognize feelings.
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The Chinese government is said to be detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities in re-education camps. The Beijing government calls them “vocational training centers”. According to a report from the BBC The government is testing an AI there that is used to record and analyze the feelings of the camp inmates.
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Alleged human attempts
The BBC quotes a software engineer from a Chinese company who, according to his own statement, was commissioned to install the emotion recognition program in police stations in Xinjiang. There, people were strapped to a chair during the interrogation and filmed from a distance of three meters.
The software would then create a diagram that could depict the person’s feelings and, for example, show how anxious they are. The system should be able to recognize and analyze even the smallest changes in facial expression.
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“People would be used like rats in an experimental laboratory.”
Ruth Kirchner, ARD correspondent for China
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The emotion recognition software works like a lie detector that works with AI. It is a technology that is highly controversial. Many experts consider it almost impossible to let an algorithm recognize human emotions.
Apart from that, it is doubtful how objective an algorithm programmed by humans can be. Stereotypes and discrimination are often a problem with technologies like this one. It is also questionable how feelings such as fear, anger or satisfaction are defined for the emotion recognition software.
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More surveillance technology
It is well known that China uses technologies like this. In the past, similar software has already been tested in schools to check whether pupils are paying attention in class, explains Ruth Kirchner.
According to the Guardian around 300 prisons in China would use such emotion recognition software. A total of 60,000 cameras are installed there for this purpose. 27 tech companies alone are to further expand the technology for China. That sums up the human rights organization Article 19 in a report together in January 2021.
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“In China, in the security apparatus, and especially in Xinjiang, everything that is possible is being tried out in terms of technology.”
Ruth Kirchner, ARD correspondent for China
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So far, Beijing has not responded to the BBC’s article. The software engineer’s statements cannot be verified either, but it fits into the picture of the re-education camps in the Xinjiang region. Beijing is using all the surveillance technology it can, says the China correspondent.
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