In 1966, MIT professor Marvin Minsky hired his undergraduate student Gerald Sussman for a simple summer job. To link a camera to a computer and make it say what it saw.
More than 50 years later that problem still hasn’t been solved, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been advances, and now Facial Recognition’s time has finally come. With more than $3 Billion on the table already, and another four expected by 2024, it’s not hard to see why competition is fierce. However, it seems that the market itself is even fiercer.
From unlocking your phone and helping the blind, to new payment methods and diagnosing diseases; whether you’re trying to stop crime or find a lost dog, the new wave of facial recognition technology is becoming indispensable. But while it’s clear that facial recognition is here to stay, the story at the coalface of implementing this technology is very different. Brands are coming face-to-face with issue’s around how it’s used and how it’s going to be regulated.
So below, we bring you the following lists, with some faces you will recognize, and some you wont.
- Top 100 – Facial Recognition – Ethics, Rights and Laws: Influencers
- Top 30 – Facial Recognition – Ethics, Rights and Laws: Institutes
- Top 50 – Facial Recognition – Policy Makers: Influencers
- Top 15 – Facial Recognition – Policy Makers: Institutes
Mapping the Community
Addressing the vast array of ethical and policy issues associated with the technology is not something that is going to happen overnight. So, we put on a brave face and went through 3 million tweets and 1 million twitter accounts looking at posts from 1st Feb 2019 to 31st January 2020 to help those facing into the winds of the issues. Below is a network map showing the online conversation around Facial Recognition, made using the Onalytica platform.
Top Influencers and Institutes
We looked at all the individuals and institutes engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top influential experts discussing Facial Recognition. Below we have a list of the top 10 ethics and policy influencers, and the top 5 ethics and policy institutes discussing Facial Recognition online. If you’d like to see the whole list, be sure to download the full report by filling the form in below.
Download the Full Report
Ethics Influencers
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | Role | Influencer Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @hare_brain | Stephanie Hare | Researcher | 100 |
| 2 | @onekade | Kade Crockford | Senior Management | 94.23 |
| 3 | @jovialjoy | Joy Buolamwini | Entrepreneur | 89.58 |
| 4 | @katecrawford | Kate Crawford | Entrepreneur | 89.05 |
| 5 | @Matt_Cagle | Matt Cagle | Legal Professional | 88.49 |
| 6 | @AnnCavoukian | Ann Cavoukian | Senior Management | 85.12 |
| 7 | @evan_greer | Evan Greer | Senior Management | 65.29 |
| 8 | @alvarombedoya | Alvaro Bedoya | Legal Professional | 58.03 |
| 9 | @mer__edith | Meredith Whittaker | Researcher | 54.35 |
| 10 | @lizjosullivan | Liz O’Sullivan | Entrepreneur | 43.85 |
Ethics Institutes
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | Influencer Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @ACLU | ACLU | 100 |
| 2 | @fightfortheftr | Fight for the Future | 88.8 |
| 3 | @AdaLovelaceInst | Ada Lovelace Institute | 82.54 |
| 4 | @BigBrotherWatch | Big Brother Watch | 78.03 |
| 5 | @EFF | EFF | 76.2 |
Policy Influencers
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | Role | Influencer Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @F_Kaltheuner | Frederike Kaltheuner | Tech Professional | 100 |
| 2 | @jevanhutson | Jevan Hutson | Legal Professional | 81.92 |
| 3 | @PeteFussey | Prof Pete Fussey | Educational Professional | 60.9 |
| 4 | @surcamcom | Tony Porter | Government Professional | 59.46 |
| 5 | @Reema__Patel | Reema Patel | Senior Management | 42.51 |
| 6 | @Miles_Brundage | Miles Brundage | Researcher | 37.16 |
| 7 | @BeterOpDeFiets | Christian D’Cunha | Government Professional | 36.93 |
| 8 | @AlexCEngler | Alex Engler | Educational Professional | 31.83 |
| 9 | @vavacolor | Valentine Goddard | Legal Professional | 31.14 |
| 10 | @babgi | Gilles Babinet | C-Suite | 24.9 |
Policy Institutes
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | Influencer Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @GeorgetownCPT | Georgetown Privacy | 100 |
| 2 | @AINowInstitute | AI Now Institute | 98.14 |
| 3 | @BrookingsGov | Brookings Governance | 56.74 |
| 4 | @doteveryone | Doteveryone | 48.6 |
| 5 | @RunnymedeTrust | Runnymede Trust | 43.9 |
Download the Full Report
Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking correlates to a strong indication of influence. The individuals listed here are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around the above key topics. Onalytica’s PageRank based methodology is used to extract influential experts on a particular topic and takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives – this allows us to identify Topical Authority (reference) – our priority influence metric. We analyzed topical authority via their social engagement on Twitter and how much influential experts were referenced in association with Facial Recognition on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Forums, Blogs, News and Tumblr content. These calculations also take into account a user’s resonance (topical engagement) relevance (number of posts on topic, and % relevance – the proportion of their social content on the topic) and reach (number of followers). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines How to identify your target influencers.
At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Virtual Reality, Digital Health, Digital Marketing) be sure to have a look on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on Twitter? Effective influencer marketing starts with identifying relevant influential experts for your brand. Onalytica’s Discovery platform mines over 200 billion posts a year into a curated database of over 700K global social media influencers, including data from Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn Profile Links + Demographic Data. Our software enables you to identify influencers by topic, demographic or content and includes real-time tracking and measurement reporting to scale your influencer relations.