The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has recently faced questions over its financial links to Chinese facial recognition startup, SenseTime.
Revelations suggest this association may have indirectly furthered the development of surveillance technologies used against the Uyghur Muslim minority.
Xiao’ou Tang, an MIT graduate now based in China, founded SenseTime.
In 2018, this company, described as China’s premier facial recognition startup, donated an undisclosed amount to MIT, as confirmed by an MIT press release from that year.
However, concerns arose when in 2019, The New York Times reported that SenseTime’s technology is integral to a “vast, secret system” used by China to “track and control Uyghurs,” according to a report from The Free Beacon.
Following these allegations, the Trump administration blacklisted SenseTime later in 2019, asserting the company’s involvement in the “repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance” of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
This decision was made after MIT had already received the donation.
When questioned, MIT conveyed they would reevaluate their connection with SenseTime, but they did not refund the donated money.
Reports suggest that MIT used the funding for research, yielding 20 papers centered on or referencing “neural networks”—the building blocks of facial recognition technology, as per industry experts.
Of these papers, 14 touched upon image data and recognition algorithms. One such paper even boasted authors connected to Zhejiang University, an institution known for its classified work with China’s defense sector.
The precise application of MIT’s research by SenseTime remains uncertain.
However, in an interesting turn of events, between 2019 and 2022—the timeframe wherein MIT released its SenseTime-backed research—SenseTime lodged 47 patent applications related to facial and image recognition technology with the World International Patent Organization.
This association exemplifies China’s broader endeavor to embed itself within American academia.
Over the last decade, as stated in a House Foreign Affairs Committee report, China has surpassed all foreign nations in donations to U.S. universities, Free Beacon notes.
Alarmingly, some of these contributions stem from entities with known ties to China’s military apparatus.
In 2018, both MIT and SenseTime heralded their “Alliance on Artificial Intelligence,” a partnership celebrated with SenseTime’s financial contribution.
When approached for comments, MIT clarified that the money funded “research projects selected by MIT faculty,” and emphasized that “MIT does not have any sponsored research collaborations or activities with SenseTime.”
Despite the Biden administration’s intensified sanctions, which prevent U.S. investments in SenseTime, MIT remains in possession of the funds.
Clarifying their stance, a university representative mentioned that they have “put on hold additional uses of the funding not already allocated, including pausing any new calls for research proposals that might be funded by the gift and not moving forward with any fellowships.”
Finally, in a 2021 statement addressing the sanctions, SenseTime said, “We regret to have been caught in the middle of geopolitical tension,” and countered that the allegations against them are “unfounded and reflect a fundamental misperception of our company.”
