Amazon Web Services (AWS) have turned out to be a massively profitable business for the CEO Andy Jassy that bagged nearly $26 billion revenue last year. However, in an attempt to try something out of the box, Amazon Web Service’s latest product, Rekognition, a facial recognition software, has caused a controversy for the cloud computing unit of Amazon. Andy says that he would like to see federal guidance on how this new technology should and shouldn’t be used.
Jassy also hoped that the federal authorities hurry up as for 50 different states, there are 50 different laws running simultaneously, Andy told in an interview at the Code Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The controversy came from the newest Amazon Rekognition software that allows the customers, including law enforcement agencies and corporations, to match videos and photos with the databases in real time. This came as a high tide for even the employees of Amazon who called out AWS, along with the lawmakers and several other civil liberties groups, for promoting Rekognition. They fear that the powerful technology can be misused.
The ACLU tested Amazon’s Rekognition software last summer, and found that it incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress with photos of other people who have committed a crime. In response to the case, Amazon responded by saying that ACLU had used incorrect settings and that is why the mismatch happened. Since then, the company has outlined specific ethical guidelines for facial recognition use and have also stated that it supports calls related to the tech for national legislation.
Andy Jassy repeated the same stand on Monday but also said that the company would continue selling the software. Just because the tech can be misused, doesn’t mean we should ban it, he said. Andy compared this case with that of Sony’s when the company’s email system was hacked several years ago.
The Amazon employees put forward their concerns and questions regarding the technolAWS CEO wants the Federal Agencies to Hurry Upogy at an all-staff meeting. Andy stated that while he thinks all these opinions were great, the company still feels good about the technology as well as the customers using it.
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