Gate 01 / Power
What capacity is actually being exercised?
Begin with material capacity, not a technology’s name. Identify the concrete action, who controls it, and who can act on its output. “AI” alone tells us too little.
First establish the action and the actor. Keep both in view at the next gate.
English narration and captions
Illustrative editorial application · Not findings by the author or NIST
One example, carried through
Imagine a public institution comparing a visitor’s face image against a gallery of identities to generate candidate matches. Its security staff decide whether to question a flagged person. The relevant power is this identification-and-intervention chain, not facial recognition in the abstract.
Evidence & its limits
Sourced factual context: NIST distinguishes one-to-one verification from one-to-many identification. The hypothetical gallery search here is the latter.
NIST study evaluates effects of race, age, sex on face recognition software
Scope: 189 algorithms from 99 developers, not final commercial products. Errors depend on algorithm, application and data. Demographic differentials appeared in most, not all, algorithms. This study supports no universal conclusion about current systems.