12 Facts About Amazon Rekognition

Amazon Rekognition is a cloud-based software as a service computer vision platform that was launched in 2016.

Amazon Rekognition was marketed as a general-purpose computer vision tool, and an engineer working for Washington County decided to use the tool for facial analysis of suspects.

Amazon Rekognition was offered to the department for free, and Washington County became the first US law enforcement agency known to use Amazon Rekognition.

In 2018, Amazon Rekognition was used to help identify celebrities during a royal wedding telecast.

In July 2018, the ACLU released a test showing that Amazon Rekognition had falsely matched 28 members of Congress with mugshot photos, particularly Congresspeople of color.

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Amazon responded saying the Rekognition test had generated 80 percent confidence, while it recommended law enforcement only use matches rated at 99 percent confidence.

In October 2018, it was reported that Amazon had earlier that year pitched Rekognition to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

In January 2019, MIT researchers published a peer-reviewed study asserting that Amazon Rekognition had more difficulty in identifying dark-skinned females than competitors such as IBM and Microsoft.

In March 2019, an open letter regarding Rekognition was sent by a group of prominent AI researchers to Amazon, criticizing its sale to law enforcement with around 50 signatures.

Amazon Rekognition argued that the proposals were an "insignificant public policy issue for the Company" not related to Amazon Rekognition's ordinary business, but their appeal was denied.

In March 2019, Amazon announced a Rekognition update that would improve emotional detection, and in August 2019, "fear" was added to emotions that Rekognition could detect.

In June 2020, Amazon announced it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of Rekognition, in response to the George Floyd protests.