Facial recognition: Intellivision advertising should not lie

Intellivision Technologies claims to have trained its facial recognition system with millions of faces. It is now so clever that it not only has one of the highest recognition rates, but also cannot be fooled by photos or films. And, unlike the competition, facial recognition is not at all biased in terms of skin color or gender. According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these are empty advertising promises. It wants to prevent such misleading claims.

Intellivision Technologies was unable to provide any evidence for the advertising claims. Neither for the allegedly high recognition rates, nor for the claim that the technology could not be deceived by images or videos. And even the promise that facial recognition works equally well for all skin colors and genders could not be substantiated by the provider. It has been known for years that facial recognition systems fail and falsely report matches, especially for people who are not white.

The FTC's communication gives the impression that the Intellivisions advertising department made up these praises. As for the "millions of faces", the investigation found that there were only about 100,000, with the rest being AI-generated variations of the real faces.

Unanimous prohibition

The FTC is allergic to such deceptions. All five commissioners have provisionally approved an agreement with Intellivision. To avoid extensive litigation, Intellivision agrees to no longer disseminate misleading claims about accuracy, fake face recognition or comparisons of skin color, ethnicity or gender bias. Such claims will only be permitted if they are based on competent, reliable tests, the results of which Intellivision can provide.

A fine is not directly associated with this because the authorities cannot impose such fines under US law. Only if the company were to violate the agreement could penalties of a good 50,000 US dollars per violation become due. The agreement will now be published and publicly consulted. The FT Commissioners will then vote a second time to make Intellivision's obligation legally binding.

Intellivision Technologies is a US subsidiary of the Italian home automation company Nice. Intellivision Technologies is not to be confused with Intellivision Entertainment, a US company that has been announcing since 2018 that it is launching a new games console called Amico. Intellivision Entertainment – is now part of Atari, minus the division – responsible for the still-unreleased game console.

The action against Intellivision Technologies is the FTC's second major facial recognition case. Last year, it forced a US pharmacy chain to deactivate its inadequate facial recognition system.

• FTC Consent Order In The Matter of Intellivision Technologies Corp.

(ds)