How Rekor Uses Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

As a company using Artificial Intelligence (Al) to advance and improve roadway intelligence technologies, Rekor is committed to its responsible use. Rekor's Code of Conduct and corporate policies are designed and reviewed to promote the use of Al technology only where it is strategically appropriate, safe, effective and ethical. The trust of our partners, customers and employees is extremely important to us. The purpose of this document is to describe the operating principles behind our use of Al technologies, both internally and externally. This description covers our expectations with respect to all Rekor employees, contractors, vendors, systems, and activities. The Al underpinnings of our products will be discussed as it pertains to the safety, efficacy, and ethical use as we work to use Al to improve the lives and safety of people, and the world around them.

Values

Guiding Mission

Rekor's guiding mission is to responsibly collect, connect, and organize the world's roadway data and make it accessible and useful to our customers for ethical purposes. This mission is the purpose behind our operations and our efforts to develop patented technologies and other innovations. While we strive to deliver the utmost in volume, variety, veracity, and value of data inputs, we take a human-centered approach that balances the desire to make faster and more informed decisions against considerations of individual privacy and the potential for misuse.

Values Based Commitments

Based on the guiding mission and core values of the company, we are committed to ensuring accurate, reliable, and responsible data to our customers. Our values help shape our business decisions and company culture. When we do business, we provide Al-based tools and insights that are consistent with our values.

Data Management and Integrity

Data Management

The FAIR data model and industry framework is at the core of Rekor's data management practices, ensuring more open and accessible data to customers and the community at large, while adhering to our privacy and anonymization principles.

Rekor emphasizes the importance of ethical data handling and privacy preservation in Al development. This involves not only following privacy laws and regulations but also adhering to best practices in data minimization and anonymization. As our customers mobilize our software and hardware, we prepare to handle large amounts of sensitive and mission-critical data. The basic framework for data ingested into our systems is to fully anonymize the data and remove all personally identifiable information. Exceptions are only made where, and to the extent strictly necessary, to support ethical and legally authorized governmental operations or private use of personal information that is strictly limited and has been reasonably consented to.

The presence of bias within our data sets is a risk that we diligently manage through the evaluation of our Al model in a multitude of conditions and stress tests. De-identified data is used to train our systems on how to better improve the functionality of our key platforms, such as Rekor Scout®, Command™ and Discover™. Additionally, our cloud based and on-premise software solutions provide the flexibility and functionality for customers to elect their own data retention periods, to be in compliance with their respective policy and regulatory requirements. We have designed our patented Al systems to process only the data necessary for their intended function and take special precautions to ensure that the data we capture and process is handled with the utmost care to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure. Our commitment to these principles is paramount in delivering Al systems that are secure, reliable, and trustworthy to the humans relying upon them for enhanced decision making.

We encourage customers to review our website for a description of our data management security standards, which are briefly summarized below.

Data Security and Protection

Rekor recognizes the critical importance of ensuring that Al systems and products are free from inherent risks, particularly those concerning the loss of privacy or the exposure of confidential or proprietary information. Rekor has implemented robust security measures and data protection protocols in all our patented Al solutions and development operations. Our approach involves using advanced encryption in transit and at rest, secure data storage, stringent access controls and compartmentalizing of information to safeguard sensitive information.

Sensitive information is encrypted with the most advanced military-grade irreversible 256-bit encryption. In addition, we use multiple compliance frameworks to minimize risk. Our CJIS compliant platform is available to our government and law enforcement clients and is hosted on AWS GovCloud with strict adherence to law enforcement guidelines. Furthermore, we conduct regular security audits and risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities. All data is stored in secure databases where only Rekor authorized administrators have access. Rekor follows zero-trust policies, and the 'least privilege' principles to ensure raw data is only accessible if necessary.

This 'least privilege' principle is incorporated into our Al-based solutions through patented technology. As data is ingested, our systems obscure the data as it is transmitted, resulting in a randomized 256 character identification number. This allows us to transmit high volumes of data safely and efficiently. Even data that is not classified as personally identifiable information is still protected through our patented in-site technology.

For our privacy policy, please see our website, which has our full policy on the usage of personal information we collect when persons register or subscribe to services on our website.

Human Centered Approach

Human-Centric Solutions

We believe in a future where Al is a tool to empower and enhance the efficiency of humans through Al-driven decision support. Our Al tools provide insights and efficiencies which human professionals use these to make informed, empathetic, and strategic decisions. Rekor's patented Al-backed solutions serve as a supplementary tool to human efforts, enhancing rather than replacing human capabilities. As a thought leader in the Al-based roadway intelligence space, our mission is to design Al solutions that empower human workers, enabling them to achieve more with their unique skills and insights.

Our products are developed with the goal of handling tasks that are typically repetitive, data-intensive, or demand a level of speed and accuracy beyond typical human capability. Our patented products, Rekor Scout, Rekor Command, and Rekor Discover improve the safety of workers by removing the need to work in dangerous conditions and environments. This strategic delegation of tasks to Al-enabled supplementary products, allows our customers to substantially improve the safety of the working environment for their human professionals. This symbiotic relationship allows the human professional to focus on areas requiring creative thinking, system planning, emotional intelligence, and strategic judgment.

Working with AI

Rekor strongly promotes that Al usage must actively involve humans throughout its operational processes. In our framework, Al products are not autonomous entities making decisions in isolation. Our products provide an Al-backed set of tools that aids and informs human professional decision-making. Human oversight is integral at every stage by design. Our talented engineering professionals create the initial design and development of Al systems to our customers' deployment and operation preferences. The monitoring, improvement, and assessment of the systems and transportation network is designed to be done by humans.

Human Review and Accountability

Our commitment to human-centered Al ensures that all Al-driven processes and decisions are subject to human review. This approach not only improves the analytical strengths of Al but also incorporates the critical, ethical, and contextual understanding that only humans can provide. It is essential to ensure that Al operates within the boundaries of ethical norms and societal values, which requires human judgment and oversight.

Furthermore, we believe that the ultimate responsibility for Al-driven innovation lies with humans. This accountability is crucial for maintaining trust in Al systems and ensuring Al systems are used responsibly and ethically. By embedding human responsibility into the core of our Al systems and products, we aim to prevent misuse, bias, and other potential negative impacts of Al technology.

Human Validation

Human engagement, review, and decision-making are fundamental aspects of our Al usage, ensuring that Al serves the needs and values of transportation eco-system and society in general, while humans retain
full responsibility for its applications and outcomes.

Rekor recognizes the importance of this human validation process in preventing operational and regulatory challenges. Our human reviewers are trained to identify and address potential issues related to intellectual property and data privacy in Al outputs. This dual focus on privacy and legal compliance in our validation process helps to ensure that our Al models are not only effective and efficient but also responsible and legally compliant. We view this human oversight as an integral part of our commitment to ethical and lawful Al deployment.

Compliance and Ethics

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

We adapt our Al practices to follow the current laws surrounding Al and data privacy. As part of these efforts, we are committed to working in partnership with regulatory thought leaders. Our Al solutions are designed to follow all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and state policies. This rigorous approach to legal compliance involves staying abreast of evolving regulations and proactively adapting our systems to meet these standards. Ensuring legal and regulatory compliance is fundamental to our operation, as it safeguards the interests of both our clients and the wider community affected by our technology.

Transparency

Transparency in Al-related systems, products and decision-making processes is a cornerstone of Rekor's approach. We passionately believe that stakeholders should be clearly informed when decisions or products are generated partially or fully by the use of Al tools. This transparency is crucial not only for trust but also for accountability and understanding the role of Al in various processes.

Rekor is committed to ensuring that all our Al systems, products and their decision-making processes are built on a foundation of ethical principles. This commitment entails strict adherence to standards of fairness, transparency, and respect for user privacy. We recognize the importance of these ethical considerations not only as a matter of principle but also to foster trust and acceptance among users and stakeholders.

To achieve this core goal, Rekor's Al solutions are designed to provide clear disclosures of the use of Al and Machine Learning technologies. This disclosure includes specifying when and how Al is being used, and the extent of its involvement in decision-making or product generation. We also strive to make the workings of our Al systems as understandable as possible. By incorporating this paradigm, Rekor Systems empower users with the knowledge they need to understand Al-driven outputs and make informed decisions based on them. This commitment to transparency is an integral part of our responsibility as an Al provider, ensuring that our technologies serve users in an ethical, clear, and accountable manner. For further information on our transparency efforts, please visit our website for our corporate governance policies.