Penang implements facial recognition and AI to hunt down wanted criminals

Perhaps we were laughing at China a bit too early. Penang now sports a fully operational facial recognition system CCTV system to identify wanted criminals moving around in the state. There’s even AI to help identify criminals better.

There are now a total of 767 cameras installed around the island, which will be collecting data to better fight crime. The goal is to have more than 3000 cameras to canvas the entire island. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be any intention to use the cameras for profiling Penang residents, but instead it will only be used to track wanted criminals on the police’s wanted list.

While it seems that the CCTV system will be used primarily for nabbing known criminals for now, there are plans to expand it into stopping crime, even before they happen. Of course this would require a lot of algorithms to properly identify crime before they are committed. Minority Report, anyone?

State police chief Datuk Seri A. Thaiveegan promises that the police will be responsible in managing the data when asked about data leaks by New Straits Times. Would you be worried about cameras watching you from above?

Pokdepinion: BRB gonna go re-watch Minority Report…