Clearview AI

Co-founder of PayPal (along with Elon Musk), Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, i.e. he has started new businesses and invests in other people's businesses (like Facebook). He has a knack for discerning good business ideas and then loaning them money.

Clearview AI started in 2017, and Thiel invested in it. According to their website, "Clearview is a new research tool used by law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators and victims of crimes." 

And how does it do this? With facial recognition technology (FRT). 

We're all familiar with security cameras in public places, like retail stores, which can be reviewed by law enforcement if a crime takes place. Facial recognition technology goes a step beyond -- it identifies the face in the video or photo as a certain individual in its data bank. 

 Clearview's data bank of individual faces is immense: three billion photos.

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(cont'd tomorrow)