Microsoft limits access to facial recognition tool in AI ethics overhaul

Company also restricts use of custom neural voice technology owing to deepfake concerns

Microsoft is overhauling its artificial intelligence ethics policies and will no longer let companies use its technology to do things such as infer emotion, gender or age using facial recognition technology, the company has said.

As part of its new responsible AI standard", Microsoft says it intends to keep people and their goals at the centre of system design decisions". The high-level principles will lead to real changes in practice, the company says, with some features being tweaked and others withdrawn from sale.