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The Bihar Police Subordinate Commission (BPSSC) employed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to prevent cheating in the preliminary examination for 1,275 sub-inspector positions, which was held last week.
The AI-powered system used various technologies, including facial recognition and eye tracking, to monitor students during the exam, which was taken by nearly 660,000 candidates. Facial recognition technology (FRT) can identify or verify a person based on images or video data interfacing with the underlying algorithm. It is used for facial detection, feature extraction, and facial recognition.
The Chairman of BPSSC, K. S. Dwivedi, stated that the Commission used AI systems across all 613 centres in the state’s 38 districts. These systems can identify cheating, including activities like impersonation and plagiarism, during the examination process.
Candidates entered the examination hall one and a half hours before the exam, and the gate was closed thirty minutes before the start of the exam. To prevent the questionnaire from being circulated, a unique numbering system was put on every page. The Central Command room at the BPSSC headquarters in Patna monitored all the examination centres.
Furthermore, the exit-entrance points of all centres were monitored using 16,500 CCTV cameras. These cameras were connected to the command-and-control system installed at the BPSSC headquarters, Dwivedi noted.
India is home to some of the most surveilled cities in the world. The use of CCTV cameras in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, and Bangalore ranks among the highest across the world. The country has been actively working to develop facial recognition technology across several sectors.
In 2022, the government of Andhra Pradesh unveiled facial recognition software to tackle teacher absenteeism in government schools. Teachers are required to log their attendance twice daily through the system.
The facial recognition system allows teachers to log their attendance using their mobile phones; however, they must be physically present in the school. The technology is integrated with the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) and captures the longitude and latitude of the teacher’s location to ensure accuracy.
Meanwhile, the state of Telangana introduced AI tech to collect and analyse school-related data. When assessing a student, experienced teachers could identify who grasped the content and who did not by observing students’ body language, expressions, attentiveness, and the kind of questions they asked in class. The AI-based camera system and model were able to assess the students on these attributes. It generated a report that the teachers could use to plan additional support for the students who were graded low. The teacher could validate the recommendations, and the algorithm learned from that.
In a bid to enhance the travel experience, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has introduced the Digi Yatra programme, incorporating facial recognition and facial verification technology at various stages of the air travel process. The programme aims to establish a seamless, paperless, and contactless check-in and boarding experience for passengers. It proposes the use of facial recognition technology to verify a passenger’s travel credentials, enabling automation at different airport checkpoints with minimal human intervention. Facial verification technology will be implemented at various airports for traveller identification, verification, ticket validation, and other necessary checks aligned with the operational requirements of airport processes.
