A 61-year-old American was arrested on suspicion of robbing a boutique with expensive glasses at the Macy's department store. The charges were based on data from a facial recognition system, which, as it turned out later, made an error. Now the man is trying to get multimillion-dollar compensation from the retailer through the court.
Jail due to AI error
A US citizen sued the American department store chain Macy's and the parent company Sunglass Hut, which specializes in selling branded sunglasses. Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr., 61, is seeking $10 million in damages from major retailers after spending hours behind bars for allegedly robbing a Sunglass Hut in which he was included in a flawed system. facial recognition, writes The Register.
In 2022, two men committed a robbery at the Sunglass Hut boutique located inside the Macy's department store building in Houston (Texas, USA). Threatening the seller with firearms, the bandits took goods and several thousand dollars in cash from the store.
During the investigation, which resulted in the crime being taken over by local police, the head of loss prevention at EssilorLuxottica, which owns the Sunglass Hut chain, allegedly identified one of the attackers at the outlet as Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr. The company representative's conclusions were based on data obtained using some facial recognition software. Based on evidence from the same system, Murphy was accused of participating in two more robberies.
Imperfect software and biased view
The software, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms, was used to analyze recordings from CCTV cameras that recorded the moment the crime was committed. According to Murphy’s lawyer, the software system “recognized” one of the criminals as his client, based on an “old” photo in which he looked much younger than he does now. At the same time, the defense insists on the “malfunction and propensity of [the facial recognition system] to make errors.”
It is noteworthy that Murphy identified one of the Sunglass Hut robbers not only by artificial intelligence, but also by a store employee. Among the photographs offered by the police, the boutique employee chose the one with Murphy.
Law enforcement obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect and managed to catch the unsuspecting black man when he showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to renew his driver's license. Murphy was arrested right at the state facility and sent to prison, where, according to court materials, he was subjected to psychological and physical abuse, including sexual abuse, apparently from fellow inmates.
Late excuse
During a meeting with his court-appointed lawyer, Murphy said that he could not have been involved in the attack on the Sunglass Hut boutique in Houston, since at the time of its commission he was in the west of the country - in California, several thousand kilometers from the crime scene. His alibi was confirmed, after which all charges against the elderly man were dropped. As a result, Murphy was released from prison several hours after his arrest.
Now Murphy, as a plaintiff, accuses Macy's and EssilorLuxottica of malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and gross negligence and intends to recover damages in the amount of $10 million from the defendants.
Random AI victims
In a conversation with The Register, a representative of the American human rights organization Fight for the Future, Caitilin Seely George, said that Macy’s has officially admitted the use of facial recognition tools in the case of Murphy. She also noted that, in her opinion, such technologies should not be used in general.
“Private companies using facial recognition technology put customers at serious risk, and this case further illustrates what we already know: there is no safe way to use facial recognition—it needs to be banned,” George said.
Existing facial recognition systems have been repeatedly criticized for being biased against non-Caucasian people in particular. Errors in the operation of the corresponding algorithms periodically lead to the arrest of innocent people.
In January 2020, African American Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was detained in Detroit (USA) following a tip from an identification system. The police took the man to the station, where they explained that a “smart” facial recognition system identified him as a criminal who robbed a store back in 2018. As a result, the police discovered that the system was wrong, but by this time the victim had already spent 30 hours behind bars.
In August 2021, CNews wrote about the case of 65-year-old Michael Williams from Chicago, who spent about a year in prison on suspicion of murder. As evidence of the African-American’s guilt, the prosecution provided data from the citywide security system ShotSpotter, which, however, does not engage in facial recognition, but is still based on artificial intelligence algorithms.
The system, consisting of a network of microphones distributed throughout a populated area, detects sudden loud sounds reminiscent of a gunshot and automatically calls the police to the scene of the suspected incident.
It is noteworthy that Williams suffered in some ways because of his own civic conscience. The man found himself in the position of the only suspect, as he rushed to independently deliver to the hospital the victim of a pistol shot by an unknown person, where he was detained by the police.
Jail due to AI error
A US citizen sued the American department store chain Macy's and the parent company Sunglass Hut, which specializes in selling branded sunglasses. Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr., 61, is seeking $10 million in damages from major retailers after spending hours behind bars for allegedly robbing a Sunglass Hut in which he was included in a flawed system. facial recognition, writes The Register.
In 2022, two men committed a robbery at the Sunglass Hut boutique located inside the Macy's department store building in Houston (Texas, USA). Threatening the seller with firearms, the bandits took goods and several thousand dollars in cash from the store.
During the investigation, which resulted in the crime being taken over by local police, the head of loss prevention at EssilorLuxottica, which owns the Sunglass Hut chain, allegedly identified one of the attackers at the outlet as Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr. The company representative's conclusions were based on data obtained using some facial recognition software. Based on evidence from the same system, Murphy was accused of participating in two more robberies.
Imperfect software and biased view
The software, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms, was used to analyze recordings from CCTV cameras that recorded the moment the crime was committed. According to Murphy’s lawyer, the software system “recognized” one of the criminals as his client, based on an “old” photo in which he looked much younger than he does now. At the same time, the defense insists on the “malfunction and propensity of [the facial recognition system] to make errors.”
It is noteworthy that Murphy identified one of the Sunglass Hut robbers not only by artificial intelligence, but also by a store employee. Among the photographs offered by the police, the boutique employee chose the one with Murphy.
Law enforcement obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect and managed to catch the unsuspecting black man when he showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to renew his driver's license. Murphy was arrested right at the state facility and sent to prison, where, according to court materials, he was subjected to psychological and physical abuse, including sexual abuse, apparently from fellow inmates.
Late excuse
During a meeting with his court-appointed lawyer, Murphy said that he could not have been involved in the attack on the Sunglass Hut boutique in Houston, since at the time of its commission he was in the west of the country - in California, several thousand kilometers from the crime scene. His alibi was confirmed, after which all charges against the elderly man were dropped. As a result, Murphy was released from prison several hours after his arrest.
Now Murphy, as a plaintiff, accuses Macy's and EssilorLuxottica of malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and gross negligence and intends to recover damages in the amount of $10 million from the defendants.
Random AI victims
In a conversation with The Register, a representative of the American human rights organization Fight for the Future, Caitilin Seely George, said that Macy’s has officially admitted the use of facial recognition tools in the case of Murphy. She also noted that, in her opinion, such technologies should not be used in general.
“Private companies using facial recognition technology put customers at serious risk, and this case further illustrates what we already know: there is no safe way to use facial recognition—it needs to be banned,” George said.
Existing facial recognition systems have been repeatedly criticized for being biased against non-Caucasian people in particular. Errors in the operation of the corresponding algorithms periodically lead to the arrest of innocent people.
In January 2020, African American Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was detained in Detroit (USA) following a tip from an identification system. The police took the man to the station, where they explained that a “smart” facial recognition system identified him as a criminal who robbed a store back in 2018. As a result, the police discovered that the system was wrong, but by this time the victim had already spent 30 hours behind bars.
In August 2021, CNews wrote about the case of 65-year-old Michael Williams from Chicago, who spent about a year in prison on suspicion of murder. As evidence of the African-American’s guilt, the prosecution provided data from the citywide security system ShotSpotter, which, however, does not engage in facial recognition, but is still based on artificial intelligence algorithms.
The system, consisting of a network of microphones distributed throughout a populated area, detects sudden loud sounds reminiscent of a gunshot and automatically calls the police to the scene of the suspected incident.
It is noteworthy that Williams suffered in some ways because of his own civic conscience. The man found himself in the position of the only suspect, as he rushed to independently deliver to the hospital the victim of a pistol shot by an unknown person, where he was detained by the police.
