Major League Baseball is accused of taking major steps toward using Chinese-style facial recognition technology to gain access to ballparks.
Although the program is currently “voluntary” as it rolls out at the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians games, experts say Americans should be aware of its implications and dangers.
The United States was founded and built on important personal privacy rights. This technology raises concerns about the rise of the surveillance state, which has been welcomed by the communist government of China.
Fans send a selfie photo of themselves through the MLB Ballpark app. As a result, ticket holders can walk into the game without a ticket or barcode. Their face is the ticket.
MLB senior vice president Karri Zaremba said, “Don’t have to get out a phone or even stop. It’s a free flow, full walking speed experience.”
This is a pilot program called “Go-Ahead Entry.” It will launch at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia.
Political commentator Randy DeSoto of Western Journal writes, “The pandemic made it abundantly clear what governments, especially when armed with what they think is right and good, seek to do to curtail people’s liberty.”
“Picture a future when grocery stores, gas stations or other retailers that provide the essentials of life have a ‘go’ and ‘no go’ database for would-be customers trying to enter the store,” he continues.
“Communist China is at the forefront of all this use of artificial intelligence,” he added.
Paul Scharre, vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, said, “Facial-recognition scanners are deployed at hotels, banks, shopping malls and gas stations” in China.
“Movement is tightly controlled through ID checkpoints that include face, iris and body scanners,” he explained.
“The problem is not just that AI is being used for human rights abuses but that it can supercharge repression itself, arming the state with vast intelligent surveillance networks to monitor and control the population at a scale and degree of precision that would be impossible with human agents,” he added.
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Although the program is currently “voluntary” as it rolls out at the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians games, experts say Americans should be aware of its implications and dangers.
The United States was founded and built on important personal privacy rights. This technology raises concerns about the rise of the surveillance state, which has been welcomed by the communist government of China.
Fans send a selfie photo of themselves through the MLB Ballpark app. As a result, ticket holders can walk into the game without a ticket or barcode. Their face is the ticket.
MLB senior vice president Karri Zaremba said, “Don’t have to get out a phone or even stop. It’s a free flow, full walking speed experience.”
This is a pilot program called “Go-Ahead Entry.” It will launch at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia.
Political commentator Randy DeSoto of Western Journal writes, “The pandemic made it abundantly clear what governments, especially when armed with what they think is right and good, seek to do to curtail people’s liberty.”
“Picture a future when grocery stores, gas stations or other retailers that provide the essentials of life have a ‘go’ and ‘no go’ database for would-be customers trying to enter the store,” he continues.
“Communist China is at the forefront of all this use of artificial intelligence,” he added.
Paul Scharre, vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, said, “Facial-recognition scanners are deployed at hotels, banks, shopping malls and gas stations” in China.
“Movement is tightly controlled through ID checkpoints that include face, iris and body scanners,” he explained.
“The problem is not just that AI is being used for human rights abuses but that it can supercharge repression itself, arming the state with vast intelligent surveillance networks to monitor and control the population at a scale and degree of precision that would be impossible with human agents,” he added.
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