An 18-year-old New York man is suing Apple for $1 billion after alleging that authorities used the company’s facial recognition software that resulted in him being wrongfully arrested.
Ousmane Bah filed the lawsuit this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He claims he was arrested last fall at his home in New York after authorities connected him with robberies spanning four states.
“He was forced to respond to multiple false allegations which led to severe stress and hardship,” Bah said in the complaint.
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Bah claims Apple’s artificial intelligence algorithm was programmed to connect his stored facial recognition records with the thief’s identity. According to the prosecution’s court filings, one of the thefts in question occurred in Boston last June on the same day Bah says he was attending his senior prom in Manhattan.
The defense claims the perpetrator used Bah’s New York State provisional driver’s license, which doesn’t include a photo and is not meant to be used as identification, when he robbed four Apple stores and stole over $1,200 worth of merchandise.
In the lawsuit, Bah claims the photo police had attached to the warrant used for the arrest looked nothing like him.
Apple has offered little comment on the case, saying it does not use any facial recognition technology in its stores.
