The office of the Australian Information Commissioner announced this week it would be taking no further action against facial recognition company Clearview AI. This marked a significant victory for one of the most controversial technology companies in the world. In 2021, Australia’s privacy regulator ruled Clearview AI broke privacy laws for scraping millions of photographs from social media sites such as Facebook and using them to train its facial recognition tool. It ordered the company to stop collecting images and delete the ones it had already had. However, there was no evidence Clearview AI followed this order. And earlier this…
Author: Rita Matulionyte, Associate Professor in Law, Macquarie University
Around the world, governments are grappling with how best to manage the increasingly unruly beast that is artificial intelligence (AI). This fast-growing technology promises to boost national economies and make completing menial tasks easier. But it also poses serious risks, such as AI-enabled crime and fraud, increased spread of misinformation and disinformation, increased public surveillance and further discrimination of already disadvantaged groups. The European Union has taken a world-leading role in addressing these risks. In recent weeks, its Artificial Intelligence Act came into force. This is the first law internationally designed to comprehensively manage AI risks – and Australia and…