US Banks Use Artificial Intelligence to Watch Workers, Public
Several American banks have started using surveillance software and computer vision to watch people using their services. Computer vision is a part of artificial intelligence that uses computers to understand the world we see.
A Reuters news agency investigation found that the software
is used to learn about customers, watch employees and spot people sleeping near
Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).
Banks like the City National Bank of Florida and JPMorgan
Chase & Co have tested facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI)
technologies. The growth of AI tools within the banking industry could signal
the spread of the technology into other industries.
Bobby Dominguez is the chief information security officer at
City National Bank. He said smartphones that open through facial recognition
have shown the potential of the technology.
"We're already leveraging facial recognition on mobile,"
he said. "Why not leverage it in the real world?"
Dominguez said City National will begin testing facial
recognition next year to identify customers and employees. He added the
software could find people on government watch lists.
Facial recognition technology, however, has raised civil
rights concerns among many people. Critics of the tool point to arrests of
innocent people wrongly identified by the technology. The software is said to
be used disproportionately in poorer and minority communities. Critics also say
the technology results in a loss of privacy.
This year, Portland, Oregon, banned businesses from using
facial recognition in public places. The drugstore company Rite Aid also closed
a facial recognition program last year.
Fredrik Nilsson is the vice president at Axis
Communications, which makes surveillance cameras. He said a big question for
banks with this technology is how the public will react to it.
Dominguez said he and other bank officials had thought about
customers’ concerns.
"We're never going to compromise our clients'
privacy," Dominguez said.
The largest American bank, JPMorgan, began using
surveillance technology in 2019. Former employees said the bank researched
videos and photos to learn more about their customers.
Video showed that more men would visit the bank before or
after lunch. Women would come in the middle of the afternoon. Before the
pandemic, the company was going to use the footage to see whether women avoided
contact with others while using ATMs. JPMorgan said it uses the data to better
plan work hours for employees and to design its banks.
A current employee said the bank could soon test facial
recognition software on people as they enter a bank. People would need to agree
to be a part of the test, however.
JPMorgan is using software that aims to measure how
employees spend their time. Others seek to identify how many customers leave
because of long lines and to find out how long transactions take.
The bank also said that facial, race and gender recognition
are not part of the test.
Targeting homeless people
Banks have wanted to use computer vision for security for a
long time. More than 10 years ago, Wells Fargo used old software to study video
of crimes to see if any faces matched known criminals.
An official at a bank in America’s South said that computer
vision is being used at all of his company’s banks. It creates warnings when
doors to safes or other important rooms are left open.
Outside, the bank watches for people loitering. Some
homeless people set up shelters underneath covered ATMs. Security workers can
play a sound message asking those people to leave, the official said.
Brian Karas works at Airship Industries, which creates
computer vision software. He said that banks have long been concerned with
people sleeping in ATM spaces where people use machines to do their banking
business.
Some software can sound an alarm or shine a bright light
when cameras see a person loitering, Karas said. He added that the companies
did not want to displace people seeking shelter, but that the company believed
it was necessary to make ATMs safe and available.
Bank of America, the country’s second largest bank, has also
invested in computer vision. At a September 2019 conference with the bank, the
company AnyVision explained how it could identify the face of a Bank of America
official.
The bank said, "We are always reviewing potential new
technology solutions that are on the market."
Comments
Post a Comment