Alipay responds to risks of facial recognition payment

In response to concerns over the risks of artificial intelligence-based face swap apps that might collect personal facial photos, Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay said the current technology cannot trick facial recognition payment no matter how realistic the photos are.

Even if such a fraudulent case happened, which is of very small probability, Alipay will pay the victim in full through its insurance company, Alipay announced on its Weibo account on Sunday.

A mobile application, ZAO, which enables users to upload photos of their faces and swap them with the faces of celebrities in video footage of hit movies or TV series, went viral in China recently.

The AI-based app raises public concerns over privacy and personal information security. People worry that their facial photos will be used by criminals to invade their accounts, especially mobile payment accounts that use facial recognition.