Every Step You Take, They'll Be Watching You

Local Chinese governments are using cameras and A.I. made by SenseTime and Megvii to identify citizens on the street. Minority Report? No—reality.

- Eamon Barrett

Tech at a crossing in Shenzhen, a giant screen displays the faces of pedestrians who dared to jaywalk, unaware they were being watched. But it wasn’t police who caught them—it was street-side surveillance cameras equipped with the latest in facial recognition technology. The miscreants’ mug shots are broadcast on the screen to shame others into compliance.

The technology behind the stunt was provided by a local company called Intellifusion, one of the smaller players in China’s advanced surveillance market. At the forefront of this booming industry are two other Chinese startups, SenseTime and Megvii, whose A.I.powered facial recognition systems are likely the most powerful in the world.

SenseTime began as a research project at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The company was established in 2014 by professor Tang Xiao’ou, an expert in the field of computer vision technology, and his protégé, Xu Li, who now serves as CEO. Today SenseTime is the world’s most valuable A.I. startup, with a valuation of at least $4.5 billion.