Face scanner Clearview AI aims to branch out beyond police

By MATT O’BRIEN and TALI ARBEL
AP Technology Writers

NEW YORK (AP) — A controversial face recognition company that’s built a massive photographic dossier of the world’s people for use by police, national governments and the Ukrainian military now plans to offer its technology to banks and other private businesses. Clearview AI co-founder and CEO Hoan Ton-That disclosed the plans Friday to The Associated Press in order to clarify a recent federal court filing that suggested the company was up for sale. He said the company plans to launch a new ID verification business to compete with Amazon and Microsoft. It would use Clearview algorithms but not its trove of 20 billion images, which the company reserves for law enforcement use.