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CNN 10

New Hampshire Holds Its Presidential Primaries; Controversial Startup Amasses A Database of Faces; Lady Liberty Factors Into A Prank in Wisconsin

Aired February 11, 2020 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: May I have your "aCNNtention" please? My name is Carl Azuz and your objective explanation of world events starts right

now. It`s always good to have you watching. We`re starting in the Granite State of New Hampshire this Tuesday because this is the day when its voters

help choose the candidates who will appear on the ballot in November`s U.S. presidential election. New Hampshire holds the second contest in the

presidential nomination process. It`s a primary meaning people pick their top candidate with a vote. The first nomination contest was in Iowa and it

was a series of caucuses. Meetings where voters grouped up according to their favorite candidates. While incumbent President Donald Trump got more

than 97 percent of the Republican vote over his two challengers, results for the 11 Democrats competing there were less certain.

Last Monday on the night of the Iowa Caucuses there were inconsistencies, mistakes and problems with the application and the phone line being used to

report results. Yesterday the Iowa Democratic Party said Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a one tenth of one percent lead

in the delegate count over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders who`s from Vermont. But both of their campaigns asked for a recanvassing, a recalculation of

some results. Whatever happens in Iowa, the results of today`s primaries in New Hampshire will give the winners momentum going into the next

contests in the weeks ahead and you can expect to see some of those who don`t win reassess their campaigns and consider leaving the race.

10 Second Trivia. Which of the following features would you find on a face? Carpus, oxter, thrapple, or philtrum. The philtrum is the

indentation or grove between your nose and your upper lip.

Clearview AI is a controversial start-up company that says its collected more than 3 billion pictures from the internet. If you`re face has ever

appeared on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or You Tube, even if the account was deleted afterward. It`s possible Clearview AI still has that picture

in its database. Critics call this an invasion of privacy. Some law enforcement agencies call it an effective tool in solving or preventing

crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Is that you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That photo is me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn`t look like you. That`s when you were younger?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s my face. A photo I haven`t seen in years found in seconds by the facial recognition app Clearview AI.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it works right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This New York Times investigation woke us all up. The realization privacy may be a thing of the past and that`s because of this

guy, Hoan Ton-That the creator of Clearview AI.

HOAN TON-THAT: Well quite simply Clearview is basically a search engine for faces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think about the photos you`ve posted online or photos that others have posted of you. There`s a good chance he`s collected it.

His app has scraped billions of images from sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google to use in a facial recognition system. He claims more than 600

law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada are using it though it`s unclear how many have actually paid for it. So that`s the photo of you.

TON-THAT: So this is a photo of me from CNN.com.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.

TON-THAT: We`re starting to see pictures of me that are not from that original image. This is from medium - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tech giants aren`t happy about this. They say it violates its terms of service and now sends cease and desist letters.

TON-THAT: Linkedin, Twitter, You Tube, so this - - this photograph is from my local newspaper.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This AI technology is looking at what? It`s looking at - -

TON-THAT: - - the unique features so it learns to ignore things a little bit like the beard and focus on the features that stay the same across, you

know, different ages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you understand why people find this creepy?

TON-THAT: I can understand people having concerns around privacy. So the first part to remember, it`s only publicly available information. We`re

not just making technology for its own sake. The reason and the purpose we found is to really help law enforcement solve crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was deeply disturbed. I was concerned about how Clearview had amassed its database of images. I was concerned about its

data privacy and I was concerned that it was tracking law enforcement searches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearview clearly claims that it works in these sting operations that we do. So we know that the person has committed a crime.

We know that they`re coming to the undercover location where law enforcement will arrest them. What we don`t know is who is this person?

But what we do have is a picture that they`ve sent to the undercover and so the Clearview app was used to get the name of the individual coming to the

undercover location. We wanted to find out, well (ph) does this person have firearms? Do they have a violent history? That`s how that tool was

used in that particular case? It wasn`t used to develop the probable cause to arrest that person. It was for law enforcement safety purposes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned about taking a tool as power as that out of the hands of law enforcement?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not categorically opposed to the use of facial recognition technology. A facial recognition tool can be used properly if

we understand how the database is created.

TON-THAT: Whether or not facial recognition is a very effective tool for criminal investigation, we can think of that question as a little bit

beside the point. The question is what do we want police to be able to know about us considering most of us really haven`t done anything that

warrants our information being in law enforcement databases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I`m going to ask my producer, Reisha (ph), tell it to run her face through this.

TON-THAT: OK. Do you have much social media?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m out there.

TON-THAT: Let`s see so. Never had a demo fail. Let`s see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`ve never had a demo fail?

TON-THAT: So far. Oh God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait, this is Instagram. I`m private on Instagram. Oh that`s - - that`s someone elses Instagram.

TON-THAT: So yeah, it`s only publicly available.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s - - wait but that`s mine too.

TON-THAT: Did you go public for awhile?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was public at one point and then I went private.

TON-THAT: So you know those - -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So if I go public and that`s - - that`s my Instagram too and I`m private now but I was public at one point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If an image is publicly available, Clearview`s technology is capable of grabbing. It doesn`t matter if you delete it

later or change the privacy settings. It doesn`t even matter if somebody posted it without your knowledge or permission. My dad doesn`t have a

Facebook account but I`ve put photos of my Dad up online. Is your view that by him consenting to get a photo taken he has inadvertently consented

to being in your database?

TON-THAT: Did you post if publicly?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TON-THAT: Yes. And did you say hey Dad I`m going to put this - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No probably not.

TON-THAT: All right. (inaudible) But you - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that`s on me then?

TON-THAT: Yes. It`s also our view that, you know, for this use case say not your Dad but someone else was in the background of that photo and that

could lead to solving a crime than it`s a good thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearview claims its app is 99 percent accurate a claim that CNN hasn`t verified. What if it identifies the wrong person and that

leads to a wrongful conviction? Are you worried about that?

TON-THAT: Yes. We don`t want that to happen at all and so that`s why the way it`s currently used in all the law enforcement agencies around the U.S.

is to make sure it`s just a lead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven`t spoken to any law enforcement agencies who think that facial recognition ID should be used as evidence in court.

There just interested in using it as an investigative tool which I think also mitigates a little bit of the community concern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to have guidelines in place for law enforcement officers. Who`s authorized to use this tool? Are they trained on it? And

then when they get those results are they trained then to know that it`s only a lead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you think this is an area that should be regulated?

TON-THAT: Yes. Absolutely. I don`t think regulation is a bad thing and we want to work with the government to create something that is safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would imagine you must be preparing for some cases that will be landmark cases that - - that set a precedent in this area?

TON-THAT: Yes. I think that it`s a very - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re going to have a lot of days in court. Are you prepared for that?

TON-THAT: Sure. Yes. I don`t think there`ll be that many but, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: From upper New York Bay to Lake Mendota, Lady Liberty`s been on the move. She also sank down a bit into the waves but this isn`t really the

statue, it`s an inflatable replica of it and this is part of a University of Wisconsin prank dating back to 1979. At that time, two student

association candidates promised to deliver a wackiness if they were re- elected. They were and the statue in the lake has been an on and off tradition ever since.

That cost the student $4,000. Where`d they get it? They`re not at liberty to say but they ought to be put on a pedestal for carrying a torch for

pranks because that one`s got to be a jewel in their crown. A completely "lakeable" inflatable that shows there`s no "statue of limitations" when

you combine liberty and imagination. Today`s show goes out to Lancaster Catholic High School, the Crusaders of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For anyone

who wants insider information on how you could get picked, we`ll be posting tips on our official You Tube channel but only for our subscribers.

END