Detroit police are changing their guidelines for facial recognition software after a "grainy photo made from poorly lit footage" led to the arrest of an innocent man for theft, said The Detroit Free Press. Robert Williams will receive a $300,000 settlement for the wrongful 2020 arrest, which he said "upended" his life. Investigators can no longer make arrests or conduct lineups based solely on software identifications.
The "powerful but imperfect" artificial intelligence technology has led to at least a half-dozen wrongful arrests, said The Washington Post. So a growing number of states and cities are drawing boundaries around the use of facial recognition. 

But that hasn't always worked. Investigators in Austin and San Francisco reportedly skirted the rules by "asking for help from other law enforcement agencies that still have access." 

What did the commentators say?
Facial recognition software can be "both racist and faulty," Williams said in a column for Time. When he was arrested, a database with 49 million photos wrongly linked security footage of a theft to Williams' license. He spent 30 hours in jail. Now? Detroit police will train investigators on the "limitations and inaccuracies of facial recognition technology," creating guardrails. That's a "big step" toward ensuring innocent people don't lose their liberty.

Others aren't sure. "There is no safe way for police to use facial recognition," Nathan Freed Wessler of the ACLU said at The Sacramento Bee. A bill in California would regulate, not ban, the use of the technology by police. And investigations often "exacerbate and compound the unreliability of facial recognition technology" because the tech generates a list of faces that are similar — but don't match — security footage. That naturally leads to problems. "Rather than being an asset to police investigations, facial recognition poisons them."

What next?
Police say facial recognition is usually more helpful than harmful. Others are more cautious: Microsoft recently banned police departments from using its artificial intelligence service for facial recognition over concerns the tech could generate "false or nonsensical information," said Quartz.

The two sides are sparring over the California bill, said CalMatters. Civil liberties groups argue facial recognition technology will "increase unnecessary police interactions." But police agencies say regulation will help them use the technology appropriately. Still, one lobbyist said, "there's a clear need to bolster public trust."

Italy's Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli erupted in recent days, spewing smoke and ash into the air. The two volcanoes are among the most active in the world, but others also pose a risk in the country, where a larger threat could be brewing beneath the surface.

What is the state of Italy's volcanoes?
Italy has 12 volcanoes, of which nine are still considered active, and is also prone to earthquakes and other seismic activity. One of the most famous disasters resulting from this combination occurred in 79 A.D., when a powerful earthquake preceded the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the city of Pompeii. Now, scientists are worried an even bigger disaster could be on the horizon. 

With 24 hidden underground craters, the Campi Flegrei, a so-called supervolcano near Naples, "dwarfs the better-known Vesuvius," said Politico. Since the summer of 2023, several small earthquakes have hit the region, fueling fears of a potentially catastrophic future eruption.

How likely is a supervolcanic eruption?
"The scientific community agrees that the tremors and uplift are signs that the volcano is awakening," said Scientific American. One theory suggests the magma is pushing to break through the surface, which would cause an "explosive eruption." The other suggests it's deeper underground, meaning the eruption would pose a lesser, but still potentially lethal, threat.

Campi Flegrei is incredibly large, making it difficult to determine and predict volcanic activity. "The eruptions migrate over time, so we'll never know where, or when of course, there'll be the next eruption," Vincenzo Morra, a geologist at the University of Naples Federico II, said to the BBC. 

What is Italy doing about it?
Scientists are using drones "equipped with thermal monitoring devices to study surface temperatures around the fumaroles," which are "vents in the Earth's surface that emit steam and hot volcanic gasses like sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide," said BBC Science Focus.

Governments are also looking at rehousing residents, although some will want to stay, to avoid "uprooting their families" and protect their homes "amid fears about looting_," said Politico. "People have lived here for generations," said Mara Muscarà, a regional councilor. "They are used to earthquakes."