The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has begun to implement the use of the AI-based Clearview facial recognition technology against Russia.
This was confirmed by Clearview, a US startup, which offers to use its technology to identify invading Russian troops, combat misinformation in war, and identify casualties.
Ukraine gets free access to Clearview's comprehensive facial search engine, which allows the Ukrainian government to identify and screen people who pass through checkpoints.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Clearview immediately offered to use this technology, in a letter that Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That sent to the Ukrainian government.
On the other hand, Clearview admits that it does not offer this technology to Russia, which calls its invasion of Ukraine a 'special operation'.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has not yet provided an official comment regarding the use of Clearview technology. However, previously a spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation admitted that it was considering offers from US-based artificial intelligence companies such as Clearview.
Since being invaded by Russia, Ukraine has received many offers of assistance from various Western companies. The assistance takes various forms, from hardware to access the internet, cybersecurity software, and so on.
So far, Clearview has collected more than two billion images originating from the Russian social media VKontakte, adding to the massive database of their image search engine which already contains more than 10 billion images.
With this database, Clearview should be able to help Ukraine identify the dead more easily, without the need to match fingerprints. In fact, according to Ton-That, this technology can still function even though part of his face is not recognized.
Not only that, Ton-That also explained that Clearview could be used to bring together refugees who were separated from their families, identify Russian spies, and help Ukraine fight the hoax war on social media.
Even so, he also emphasized that Clearview should not be used as the only means of identification, and he also did not want its technology to be used to violate the Geneva Conventions, which became the standard of humanity during the war.