Facial recognition app a double-edged sword

Recently, an app called ZAO went viral, as it allowed users to replace the faces of actors or actresses with their own in "deepfake" video clips of popular TV series or movies through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) including facial recognition technology.

Yet merely days later, the head of Momo, the app's developer, was summoned and questioned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology about its defective user agreement and risks of data leakage. This has raised people's concerns about the use and supervision of the relatively new facial recognition technology.

In fact, the European Commission plans to introduce regulation to tighten the technology's use in a bid to "stamp out creeping public surveillance of European citizens", according to the Financial Times. This is the European Union's latest move to impose stricter limits on the application of new technologies including AI and big data to safeguard human rights. Last year, the EU implemented the General Data Protection Regulation and in April, it issued the draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.