[Music]
improving lives
increasing connectivity across the world
that's the great promise offered by
data-driven
but technology china it also promises
greater state control
and abuse of power
[Music]
this is the next groundbreaking
development in data-driven technology
facial recognition
[Music]
and in china you can already withdraw
cash
checking at airports and pay for goods
using just your face
the country is the world's leader in the
use of this emerging technology
and china's many artificial intelligence
startups
are determined to keep it that way in
the future
[Music]
companies like u2
we're pioneering artificial intelligence
research and
innovation in the hope of creating a
safer faster and healthier world
is creating the building blocks for a
smart city of the future
where facial recognition is part of
everyday life
this could even extend to detecting what
people are thinking
visual recognition they can read
people's emotions
and we are actually now working on these
innovative demonstrations and technology
but the chinese government has plans to
use this new biometric technology
to cement its authoritarian rule
the country has ambitious plans to
develop a vast national surveillance
system
based on facial recognition it'll be
used to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens
in unprecedented ways with the
capability of tracking
everything from their emotions to their
sexuality
the primary means will be a vast network
of cctv cameras
170 million are already in place and an
estimated 400 million new ones will be
installed over the next three years
the authorities insist this program will
allow them to improve security for
citizens
and if you have nothing to hide you have
nothing to fear
but not everyone is convinced
who was ousted by the government he
feels like he's under constant
surveillance
what we do
[Music]
already the authorities are using facial
recognition to name and shame citizens
even for minor offenses like jaywalking
in beijing they're using the technology
to prevent people stealing rolls of loot
paper from public toilets
and across china police officers are now
trialling sunglasses and body cameras
loaded with facial and gesture
recognition technology it's helping them
to identify wanted suspects
in real time what worries some people
here
is that as the technology develops so
too
does the capacity for it to be abused
some of those most at risk in this hyper
surveillance future
are the ethnic minorities in china
in xinjiang province the chinese
government is wary of the separatist
threat
posed by the muslim uighur population
according to local ngos an estimated one
million uyghurs
are being detained indefinitely in
secretive internment camps
where some are being subject to abuse
it's been called the largest mass
incarceration of a minority population
in the world today
the authorities are using facial
recognition cameras to scan people's
faces before they enter markets
the system alerts authorities if
targeted individuals stray 300 metres
beyond their home
in the future the government plans to
aggregate even more data
and build a predictive policing program
that imposes even tighter controls here
without checks and balances china will
keep finding new ways to violate the
human rights of its citizens
what's already happening in xinjiang is
a warning the rest of the world must
heed
you