{"id":16151,"date":"2020-09-18T12:32:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=696581"},"modified":"2020-09-18T12:32:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:32:57","slug":"online-bar-exams-rely-on-facial-recognition-tech-and-guess-what-its-still-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2020\/09\/18\/online-bar-exams-rely-on-facial-recognition-tech-and-guess-what-its-still-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Bar Exams Rely On Facial Recognition Tech And Guess What? It&#8217;s Still Racist!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_522168\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-522168\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-522168\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/Facial-recognition-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-522168\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image via Getty)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot out there about the racist history of facial recognition algorithms. Academics have noted that the <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@Joy.Buolamwini\/ibm-leads-more-should-follow-racial-justice-requires-algorithmic-justice-and-funding-da47e07e5b58#:~:text=any%20government%20use.-,Racial%20justice%20requires%20algorithmic%20justice,a%20stand%20backed%20with%20action.&amp;text=The%20Algorithmic%20Justice%20League%20is,and%20harms%20of%20artificial%20intelligence.\">technology rests on systemic racist assumptions<\/a>, a 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2019\/12\/20\/79\/ai-face-recognition-racist-us-government-nist-study\/\">government study confirmed it<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/tech-and-telecom-law\/facial-recognition-ban-in-massachusetts-set-for-senate-approval\">states are looking into banning it<\/a>. But for thousands of soon-to-be attorneys across the United States, this technology will decide whether or not they&#8217;re cheating on their bar exams in a couple weeks. What can possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ok <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ExamSoft?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ExamSoft<\/a> support told me to \u201csit directly in front of a lighting source such as a lamp.\u201d I\u2019m receiving the same issue preventing me from completing the NY UBE mock exam. Facial recognition technology is racist. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DiplomaPriv4all?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DiplomaPriv4All<\/a> do y\u2019all think I have \u201cadequate lighting\u201d? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7tFdwfpyHB\">pic.twitter.com\/7tFdwfpyHB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alivardi Khan (@uhreeb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uhreeb\/status\/1304451031066083331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 11, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>This applicant isn&#8217;t alone. A California applicant also recently posted the same problem:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-696596\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/09\/EhXVVQwU0AANeWu.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"439\" height=\"125\" \/><br \/>\nThis isn&#8217;t a new problem. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/legaltechnews\/2020\/08\/05\/bar-exams-facial-recognition-deployment-is-heightening-test-takers-anxiety\/\">Victoria Hudgins covered this back in August<\/a> when we were dealing with Michigan&#8217;s effort to deploy this technology and detailed the absurd and inexcusable additional burden this is placing on non-white applicants:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Taylor, who is Black, has readjusted her studying tactics to prepare to be\u00a0observed by ExamSoft\u2019s facial recognition tech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to affect my preparation for the bar. I will be far more conscious of my face as I study,\u201d she said. She\u2019s practicing for her exam under different conditions, such as foregoing glasses for contacts, practicing under perfect lighting and other scenarios.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to be flagged for cheating, and I would want to prepare properly,\u201d she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But in the intervening month and a half, the software hasn&#8217;t gotten much better. Probably because they&#8217;re <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/09\/two-days-before-the-deadline-bar-exam-declares-desktop-computers-forbidden\/\">still trying to figure out if they can make desktop computers work<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When I <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/07\/the-fight-for-diploma-privilege\/\">spoke with diploma privilege advocates<\/a> earlier this summer, we discussed the possibility that the ExamSoft system may violate California city ordinances banning the use of the technology for a number of applications. But even if those specific ordinances don&#8217;t apply, there&#8217;s ample cause for state and local officials to get involved when we have a state-sponsored entrance exam discriminating against people on the basis of race. I think there&#8217;s, like, an Amendment about that or something.<\/p>\n<p>The ILG online exam experience was&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/08\/florida-bar-exam-kicks-ilg-to-the-curb\/\">not good<\/a>. But the appeal of the ILG model was the commitment to live proctoring. Actual human beings would be watching over the test takers in the same way they would at an in-person location. By contrast, ExamSoft uses an algorithm to watch everyone which alleviates the technical hurdle of simultaneously routing thousands of feeds to remote proctors, but introduces all the rest of the racist baggage from facial recognition tech.<\/p>\n<p>It also can&#8217;t deal with diabetics, <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/09\/bar-examiners-ask-applicants-to-kindly-stop-being-diabetic-for-a-couple-days\/\">but that&#8217;s another article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There will be a day when facial recognition technology is useful and reliable, but it&#8217;s gotten <em>way<\/em> out ahead of itself. This is the stage where facial recognition developers should be futzing around with whether or not you need a password to update Candy Crush, not forming the basis of no-knock warrants. And somewhere in between those applications is &#8220;gatekeeping the legal profession&#8221; but it&#8217;s a lot further from the former than it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Earlier<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/legaltechnews\/2020\/08\/05\/bar-exams-facial-recognition-deployment-is-heightening-test-takers-anxiety\/\">Bar Exams\u2019 Facial Recognition Deployment Is Heightening Test Takers\u2019 Anxiety<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-443318\" src=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Headshot-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot\" width=\"192\" height=\"128\" \/><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/joe-patrice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of <a href=\"http:\/\/legaltalknetwork.com\/podcasts\/thinking-like-a-lawyer\/\">Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:joepatrice@abovethelaw.com\">email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/josephpatrice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0if you&#8217;re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpnexecsearch.com\/joseph-patrice-bio.php\">Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"summary\">It seems like someone in a position of authority might want to look into this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":522168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7802,2495,171,490,7],"class_list":["post-16151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-bar-exam","tag-facial-recognition","tag-law-schools","tag-racism","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Online Bar Exams Rely On Facial Recognition Tech And Guess What? It&#039;s Still Racist! - Above The Law&#039;s Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2020\/09\/18\/online-bar-exams-rely-on-facial-recognition-tech-and-guess-what-its-still-racist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Online Bar Exams Rely On Facial Recognition Tech And Guess What? 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