The use of Facial recognition technologies has proliferated both in public and private sectors in countries around the world. While their proponents highlight the ability of these technologies to improve service delivery and ensure safety, the critics point to significant risks they create to privacy, non-discrimination and other fundamental rights. This presentation will introduce the Cambridge Handbook of Facial Recognition in the Modern State where 34 contributors from 5 world regions (Europe, US, Asia Pacific, North America and Latin America) discuss the legal and ethical challenges that these technologies raise, whether the existing legal frameworks in different countries are fit for purpose in addressing these challenges and what are the most recent and possible future efforts to regulate – and tame – these controversial tools.

About the Speakers:

Prof. Rita Matulionyte is an Associate Professor at Macquarie University Law School (Australia) and an international expert in intellectual property and technology law, with her most recent research focusing on legal and governance issues surrounding Artificial Intelligence technologies. Rita has over 60 research papers published by leading international publishers and she has been invited to present her research in conferences in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. She is a recipient of Women in AI Award 2023 APAC, in AI in Law category, and has co-authored commissioned reports for the European Patent Office, the governments of Australia, South Korea and Lithuania. Rita is serving as an expert at the Australia Government’s Copyright and AI Reference Group (CAIRG), an expert at the International Standards Organization/Standards Australia IT-043 Committee on Artificial Intelligence, is an Executive Member of Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre, and is an active member of the Australian Alliance for AI in Healthcare, Safety and Ethics Working Group.

Dr. Monika Zalnieriute is a Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. She has just completed Australian Research Council DECRA project “AI-Decision Making, Privacy and Discrimination Laws” (2021-2024) and returned to Lithuania from UNSW Sydney, where she has spent last 6 years. Monika’s research on law and technology has been published widely by leading international journals, such as the Modern Law Review and American Journal of International Law. Her research has been drawn upon widely by scholars (800+ citations on Google Scholar; and 18000+ downloads on SSRN) and international organizations, such as the Council of Europe, World Bank, the European Parliament and WHO. Her work has been translated into Mandarin, Russian and German, and has also appeared in international media outlets, such as BBC and The Guardian. Monika is the co-editor of Money Power and AI (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and The Cambridge Handbook of Facial Recognition in the Modern State (Cambridge University Press, 2024). She is a keen long-distance runner and has finished her first marathon last year.

Discussant:

Prof. Jyh-An Lee, Professor, CUHK LAW

Register here by 12:00 nn (HKT), 14 November 2024 to attend the book talk.

*The Law Society of Hong Kong has awarded this seminar 1.5 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points.