More Chinese Companies Have Patents For AI-Powered Uighur Detection, Research Found

In the world of digital surveillance, where those with the needed tools can spy on others without having to break a sweat, China is among those that are putting surveillance to the next level.

And here, after Alibaba was found to have offered its clients an "Uighur-Detection-as-a-Service" using AI, more Chinese companies are found to have done things similar.

As first reported by video surveillance researchers at IPVM, companies like Huawei, facial recognition firm Megvii, and several other Chinese tech firms have filed patents “for various devices and systems that include Uighur and ethnic minority detection.”

IPVM also also found 12 government projects from the last few years that mandate Uighur analytics across the country.

IVPM’s report adds further evidence of the “ethnicity detection” software the Chinese government is actively developing and deploying.

On its report, IVPM adds evidence of the prevalence of China's "ethnicity detection" software.

"In China, AI software that can automatically detect whether someone's face is Uyghur is IPVM Image widely deployed across police security camera networks. The systems generally detect whether someone's face looks Uyghur, Han (China's ethnic majority), or 'other', meaning they specifically target Uyghurs, a highly repressed minority."

"The PRC government has even included these analytics in facial recognition guidelines."

For Huawei, its patent describes AI techniques for identifying pedestrians by attributes including “race (Han [China’s biggest ethnic group], Uighur).”

The patent was originally filed in July 2018 by Huawei and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

As for Megvii, it has a patent filed in June 2019 for a "portrait retrieval method and device" powered by a "neural network" that "extracts [facial] features", As one of the largest facial recognition software vendor, Megvii also has a separate patent filed in 2017 for a "Method, device and computer memory for evaluating face recognition algorithm" mentions "minority" ethnicity detection, stating "Race (minority) can include yellow race, black race people, white people, etc."

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In response, Huawei said Uighur analytics "should never have become part of the [patent] application" and is "taking proactive steps to amend" this:

"Huawei opposes discrimination of all types, including the use of technology to carry out ethnic discrimination. Identifying individuals’ race was never part of the research and development project. It should never have become part of the application and we are taking proactive steps to amend it. We are continuously working to ensure new and evolving technology is developed and applied with the utmost care and integrity."

As for Megvii, the company said that the 2019 patent "is open to misunderstanding" and "is in no way an intention to develop ethnic identification solutions," saying that:

"Megvii recognizes that the language used in our 2019 patent application is open to misunderstanding. The patent application pertains to technology to re-label images based on existing attributes provided by third parties, where some of them might have been labeled incorrectly, in order to facilitate portrait retrieval. This functionality, which re-labels images using such attributes as age, gender and ethnicity, is in no way an intention to develop ethnic identification solutions. Megvii, moreover, has not developed and will not develop or sell racial or ethnic labelling solutions. Megvii acknowledges that in the past, we have focused on our commercial development and lacked appropriate control of our marketing, sales, and operations materials. We are undertaking measures to correct the situation."

Besides Huawei and Megvii, IPVM also mentioned:

  • Alibaba with a patent filed in 2018.
  • Intellifusion with a patent filed in 2018.
  • Baidu which has a patent filed in 2019.
  • SenseTime that has a patent filed in 2019.
  • SensingTech with a patent filed in 2019.

IPVM highlighted that several top Chinese tech companies have openly included ethnicity tracking in their patent filings, although they don't really refer the ethnicity to Uighurs.