Artificial Intelligence Company That Used OkCupid Images Has Lawsuit Dismissed

Artificial intelligence company Clarifai has successfully gotten a class action lawsuit against it dismissed by a federal judge in Illinois.

The defendant was accused of unlawfully harvesting profile images from OkCupid to train its facial recognition software. It was granted access by the dating platform’s executive team, but there was never a business relationship established between the two.

Clarifai used the images to build technology that would be able to correctly identify a human’s age, sex and race. Controversy arose after a New York Times article revealed that it could help to develop systems deployed by Customs Enforcement.

Lead plaintiff Jordan Stein complained that the deed was in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

In the past two years, Clarifai has done business with two customers in Illinois, which resulted in revenue of just seven cents.

The case was ultimately thrown out because there was no evidence to suggest that users were deliberately targeted based on their location. US District Judge Sara Ellis concluded that this, along with a lack of revenue, means that anything other than a dismissal could lead to similar lawsuits being filed in almost every other state.

A Match Group investor has filed a separate lawsuit against current and former board members due to the company’s alleged failure to keep predators off its platforms. 

The plaintiff is also claiming that moderators refused to delete fake accounts as they encouraged more users to register for premium memberships.

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