Microsoft updated the terms of use for its Azure OpenAI service restricting access to artificial intelligence (AI) models developed by OpenAI for US law enforcement agencies.
Strengthening privacy and promoting ethical use of technologies, especially real-time facial recognition, are the objectives of the provision.
Additionally, Microsoft’s new policy dictates that no police department in the US will be able to use such AI tools for applications that include text and speech analysis based on their investigations.
They also prohibited the global use of real-time facial recognition technologies with mobile cameras operated by any police entity.
A Microsoft spokesperson specified that integrations with Azure OpenAI Service should not be used to identify people in uncontrolled environments, using suspect databases, or for persistent tracking of individuals based on their personal information or biometric data.
Models affected by this update include GPT-3, GPT-4 and its Turbo version, as well as Vision and Codex tools, DALL·E 2, DALL·E 3 and Whisper.
Microsoft has also implemented limitations on facial analysis so that personal characteristics such as emotional state, gender or age are not inferred.
This measure contrasts with previous reports that suggested a possible collaboration between Microsoft and the US military in the use of the aforementioned technologies.
