IBM Does an About-Face on Facial Recognition Technology: Business Casual

Daniel Litwin
Jun 15, 2020
Learn more
amazon Business Casual Daniel Litwin Podcast Facial Recognition George Floyd IBM MarketScale microsoft Police Brutality Police Reform Racial-Bias Taylor Bagley Podcast Tyler Kern Podcast

Powered by RedCircle

On this Business Casual snippet, Tyler Kern, Taylor Bagley and Daniel Litwin discuss an announcement made my IBM on June 8th regarding the tech giant’s intention to stop offering facial recognition software for “mass surveillance or racial profiling”.

In 2019, a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that none of the facial recognition tools from Microsoft, Amazon and IBM were 100% accurate when it came to recognizing men and women with dark skin. Further, a study from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology suggested facial recognition algorithms were far less accurate at identifying African-American and Asian faces compared with Caucasian ones. In a world currently riding the shockwaves of social unrest and protests calling for police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death while being apprehended by officers in Minneapolis, this technological bias in gear provided to policing organizations has definitely been put under the microscope.

In support of IBMs move to abandon ‘biased’ facial recognition tech, Chief Executive Arvind Krishna, stated, “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies”.

As the first major company to back out of a technology largely used by law enforcement, the Business Casual dynamic duo break down Krishna’s letter to congress urging action against police malfeasance as well as more regulation on how law enforcement uses facial recognition technology, two different studies of Amazon’s facial recognition system by the ACLU which resulted in both Congress members and professional athletes being falsely matched with images of those in a mugshot database, whether IBM’s decision was based solely on current racially-charged events or just part of an ongoing massive restructuring within the company, and much more.

Bringing thought leadership to your day, MarketScale’s Business Casual keeps you current with technology leaps both forward and backward, the hottest topics and the newest trends shaping business and our world today. And for the latest thought leadership, news and event coverage across B2B, be sure to check out our industry pages.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!
Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

Radar
Physical Retail’s Next Infrastructure Layer: Item-Level Intelligence with Radar
June 4, 2026

Physical retail is under pressure to become as measurable and responsive as e-commerce. While retailers have spent years optimizing digital channels with real-time data, store teams have often had to make decisions with incomplete inventory visibility and delayed operational signals. That gap matters because stores still account for 80% of U.S. retail sales, making…

Read More
Healthcare in Pakistan
From Institutional Excellence to Population-Level Access: How Pakistan Can Bridge Its Healthcare Divide
June 1, 2026

Healthcare systems are under pressure almost everywhere, but the strain is especially visible in lower-resource settings where demand is rising faster than infrastructure. In Pakistan, that pressure is playing out across a system that has to serve more than 250 million people with limited public investment. Public health spending remains below 1% of GDP,…

Read More
Engineering
Scaling Experiential Learning in the Curriculum: How Iron Range Engineering Transformed Engineering Education
June 1, 2026

Engineering has transformed nearly every part of modern life, from the phones in our pockets to the systems powering global industry. But the way engineers are educated has often moved far more slowly than the profession itself. Employers are asking for graduates who can navigate ambiguity, communicate across teams, and contribute meaningfully from the…

Read More
vascular surgeon
When Geography Meets Purpose: How One Move Reshaped a Vascular Surgeon’s Career
May 28, 2026

Medicine isn’t what it used to be—not for the people practicing it. Independent physicians are becoming the exception, not the norm, as more doctors move into hospital systems, corporate groups, and academic networks. At the same time, the pipeline of specialists isn’t keeping pace with growing patient needs, particularly in complex fields like vascular…

Read More
Related
AI
Software & Technology
The AI Health Score: Turning Hallucinations, Agents, and AI Risk Into Board-Ready Insight
May 24, 2026
TheAIAudit
Healthcare
Introducing TheAIAudit: A Platform Built to Measure, Monitor, and Govern Enterprise AI
May 22, 2026

Enterprise AI is advancing faster than most companies can govern it. Behind the scenes, AI systems are already influencing decisions tied to revenue, operations, compliance, customer outcomes, and risk — yet many organizations still lack a clear way to measure, explain, or oversee what those systems are doing. That is the gap TheAIAudit was…

Read More
healthcare
Healthcare
The Best Healthcare Platforms Are Built on Clear Communication, AI-Human Collaboration, and a Deep Understanding of the “Why”
May 4, 2026

Healthcare is being pushed to modernize faster than ever, as AI tools, virtual care, and digital patient experiences shift from innovation to expectation. Recent survey data from McKinsey & Company indicates that about half of U.S. healthcare leaders say their organizations have already put generative AI into practice, underscoring how quickly the technology is…

Read More