NIST Needs Volunteers to Help Figure Out Generative AI – Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Remote Proctoring Company Reaches $6.25M BIPA Settlement

Respondus Inc. has reached a $6.25 million settlement in a class action lawsuit filed under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The lawsuit concerned Respondus’ proctoring software for remote examinations, which uses biometrics to authenticate the students taking exams. Other BIPA lawsuits have targeted some of the colleges that use Respondus’ technology. Respondus insists that it did nothing wrong, and denies that it ever collected biometric data that would be subject to BIPA. Nevertheless, the company will send cheques to the lawsuit’s class members, with individual payments expected to amount to about $50, depending on how many approved claims are submitted.

IDEMIA Launches New Biometric Handheld for Law Enforcement

IDEMIA Identity and Security (I&S) North America has launched a new biometric handheld aimed at law enforcement. A sequel to the MorphoIDent, the new handheld features a FAP 30 optical fingerprint sensor enabling the device to capture up to 10 fingerprints and check them against multiple criminal databases, enabling biometric identification in the field. The device also features a rear-facing camera for photo capture; and it can be configured to read ISO-compliant mobile IDs. IDEMIA has been working with several law enforcement agencies to pilot IDent 2.0, with Sacramento County’s Regional Cal-ID Program Manager, Christie Fleeman, attesting that it has produced “overwhelmingly positive feedback from the field.”

TECH5 Beats Competition in LivDet Evaluation Program

TECH5’s technology has won top positions in the “Liveness Detection Competition 2023 For Noncontact Fingerprint Systems and Algorithms“, an evaluation program organized by Clarkson University in collaboration with the University at Buffalo. The contactless competition had two categories of assessment — one concerning algorithms and based on a single fingerprint, and another that assessed Presentation Attack Detections systems including hardware, based on a single fingerprint and a four-finger scan. TECH5 took the first and second rankings in the systems category, both for single- and four-fingerprint liveness detection.

Voice Deepfake Startup Raises $19M in Series A

ElevenLabs has raised $19 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (whose new fund is discussed in this week’s AI Update) along with Andreessen Horowitz, and featuring the participation of a number of other figures from the tech community. ElevenLabs is the developer of synthetic voice technology, and attained some notoriety earlier this year when a Vice journalist used it to spoof his bank’s biometric authentication system. Such uses of its technology prompted the startup to develop a deepfake detection tool, dubbed “AI Speech Classifier”, which was made available to certain ElevenLabs partners this week. ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski says the startup’s latest funding will be used to build additional voice products.

Keyless Wins AI Breakthrough Award

London-based Keyless has won the Authentication Innovation Award in this year’s AI Breakthrough Awards program. The distinction concerns Keyless’s ‘Zero-Knowledge Biometrics’ solution, which is designed to keep the data of an end user private; according to Keyless, its cloud computing model “can perform computation without seeing the actual data”. In a statement, AI Breakthrough Managing Director James Johnson called the company’s solution “ground-breaking development for privacy, and an industry-first achievement that stands to revolutionize the passwordless authentication space.”

NIST Seeks Volunteers for AI Working Group

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced plans to launch a new “Public Working Group on Generative AI” aimed at assessing the opportunities and risks of such technologies, and at advising NIST on guidance to help organizations addressing generative AI’s risks. The White House says the working group will build on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework released earlier this year. In putting the group together, NIST will draw on volunteers from across the public and private sectors; interested individuals are asked to apply by July 9.

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June 23, 2023 – by Alex Perala