Michael Hardin, director of policy at the Customs and Border Protection, touted the capability of facial recognition systems in identifying and verifying individuals during an event in Washington, Nextgov reported Thursday.
“But the reality of that is there are some things that machines are better at and there are some things people are better at. Right now, it’s clear that machines are better at matching a photo to a person—and that’s shown up in all of our research,†he said Wednesday during a panel discussion hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Hardin mentioned the advantages of adopting facial recognition technologies to CBP personnel. “It’s a huge advantage for us now, not just because the machine can perform better than the human in the actual matching, but also because it frees up the person to do other law enforcement activities in a small amount of time, which is really all they have,†Hardin said.
He added that CBP has provided funding for the National Institute Standards and Technology to help test its algorithms and better understand bias with regard to the use of such technologies.
