[2603.27747] AI-Powered Facial Mask Removal Is Not Suitable For Biometric Identification

Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition arXiv:2603.27747 (cs) [Submitted on 29 Mar 2026] Title:AI-Powered Facial Mask Removal Is Not Suitable For Biometric Identification Authors:Emily A Cooper, Hany Farid View a PDF of the paper titled AI-Powered Facial Mask Removal Is Not Suitable For Biometric Identification, by Emily A Cooper and 1 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Recently, crowd-sourced online criminal investigations have used generative-AI to enhance low-quality visual evidence. In one high-profile case, social-media users circulated an "AI-unmasked" image of a federal agent involved in a fatal shooting, fueling a wide-spread misidentification. In response to this and similar incidents, we conducted a large-scale analysis evaluating the efficacy and risks of commercial AI-powered facial unmasking, specifically assessing whether the resulting faces can be reliably matched to true identities. Subjects: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) Cite as: arXiv:2603.27747 [cs.CV]   (or arXiv:2603.27747v1 [cs.CV] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.27747 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Hany Farid [view email] [v1] Sun, 29 Mar 2026 16:00:37 UTC (1,763 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled AI-Powered Facial Mask Removal Is Not Suitable For Biometric Identification, by Emily A Cooper and ...