Also, on the morning of January 20, 1999, like every day, Xie Qingshuai’s mother crossed the threshold of her house to go to the market to buy vegetables. He, then 10 months old, was left alone in his home in Xingtai, China’s Hebei province. Little Qingshuai’s mother was in a hurry and needed to take care of something that would take very little time, so she did not close the door. A choice that haunted him for decades to come. Ten minutes later, the woman discovered what she never wanted to experience: Her son was missing.
A long drama that lasted 25 years
From that moment on, the Xie family’s ordeal began. Qingshuai’s family traveled across Northern China to find him, even depleting their savings. But an algorithm developed by artificial intelligence start-up Beijing DeepGlint Technology came to their and the authorities’ aid. Xie’s parents were reunited with their son, who was kidnapped by two strangers, after 25 long years, thanks to an algorithm that compares the faces of people of different ages and matches them with people who may be their relatives (face comparison algorithm across ages).
The algorithm works simply. The AI system analyzes facial features such as eye size or cheekbone height and compares potential relatives based on similarities. The higher the score, the more likely the people are related. As with Xie Qingshuai. The Beijing company used photos of both the parents and the child’s older brother to help the algorithm narrow the search to five possibilities. DNA testing later confirmed his relationship to Qingshuai’s parents.
Chinese police database
However, there is a scarcity of data that limits the functionality of the system. The problem of child abductions and missing children cases in China in recent years (the result of the one-child policy introduced in 1979 to stop uncontrolled population growth and later abolished in 2015) has pushed Chinese authorities to cooperate with artificial intelligence companies. : The first step is to grant access to police databases to train different AI models. Facial recognition technology and an information-sharing program have proven effective for Chinese police in identifying and tracking missing children in a country of 1.4 billion people, but it is unclear how many children have been found.
Chinese technology giants have also developed artificial intelligence models to locate minors who disappeared years ago. Tech giant Tencent and search engine Baidu have developed a model that allows them to create a photo of what the missing children looked like 10 years ago, using databases from the police and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Against child trafficking: a decades-long fight
The Chinese government is at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking: According to experts, between 10,000 and 60,000 Chinese children go missing every year. In 2021, the State Council (the executive body of the Chinese state apparatus) approved a ten-year plan to combat this phenomenon, which can be very lucrative for traffickers: $4 thousand for the sale of a boy, $2 thousand for the sale of a girl. So much so that the Ministry of Public Security announced that it wants to encourage the use of technologies, including facial recognition programs, in the fight against child trafficking. Already in 2009, the same ministry created a national DNA database, and then five years later, in 2016, it launched a platform with emergency information for missing children, known as the “reunification system”.
However, the news of Qingshuai’s reunion with her parents sparked a heated debate on Chinese social media. While many expressed hope for greater cooperation between authorities and AI, others expressed skepticism about the invasion of privacy. Many experts have expressed concerns about the ethical and legal issues surrounding the widespread use of facial recognition.
Unnecessary disclosure of personal information may lead to the re-victimization of the minor, who will find his reputation and dignity damaged over time by the exposure of his image and history. Or worse. The minor’s photograph may be used inappropriately for an advertising campaign or without allowing the person concerned – or their parents – some use of the image of their face. And it is easy to understand the danger of a system of integrated technologies managed by artificial means in an authoritarian country like China, where a huge video surveillance network is created, where the police are given almost unlimited powers to suppress dissidents and representatives of ethnic minorities. intelligence applications
Beijing government’s dilemma
But last August, the Chinese government decided to crack down on the use of facial recognition systems, drawing new, stricter regulatory limits on the implementation of these technologies by private companies. The goal is clear: to limit the spread of surveillance systems in private hands, to show the public that it is listening to concerns about invasion of privacy.
There China’s cyberspace governance China’s main internet control body (Cac) has publicly stated its desire to regulate the use of facial recognition technologies only for “specific purposes that are absolutely necessary.” The rule, which is open for public comment, would ban biometric technology in bathrooms, locker rooms or hotel rooms and define a maximum retention period for images of depicted faces. According to the draft, the faces of children under the age of 14 cannot be scanned without the permission of both parents. The Chinese government therefore faces a dilemma: limit the use of facial recognition to regulate the issue and thus find missing children, or harm the rights of minors.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
