The NSF is using Clearview AI to investigate grant applicants with common names

The National Science Foundation's Office of Inspector General confirmed usage of Clearview AI to solve the "Mike Smith problem" while investigating potentially fraudulent grant applications.

An overlay of the looking glass logo of facial recognition company Clearview AI on top of the flame of the official seal of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General.

When most Americans hear of fraud investigations being conducted with powerful facial recognition and armed Special Agents, they likely think of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or, perhaps, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is funds a large percentage of fundamental research in the United States, probably isn’t top of mind.

Revealed here for the first time, the investigations arm of the NSF’s Office of Inspector General has confirmed to the author that three staff members have been investigating potentially fraudulent grant applications using the controversial facial recognition capabilities developed by Clearview AI on top of tens of billions of photos scraped from the internet. The underlying contract was signed on May 1st through Tampa-based reseller NexTech Solutions LLC and has so far paid out $20,000 of a potential $100,000, though its initial one year trial period has the option of being extended into 2028.

According to NSF forensic accountant Douglas Wheeler, the primary purpose of NSF’s Clearview AI contract is to “deal with the ‘Mike Smith’ problem”, which he explained to be the challenge that arises when a grant applicant’s name “is so common that your text search results might be 100,000 [results]”. Mr. Wheeler further noted that NSF’s usage of Clearview AI is targeted towards situations “where there are maybe foreign influence programs, foreign recruitment programs, [or] foreign talent programs”, which strongly hints at a focus on Chinese grant applicants who have common names.

While neither Mr. Wheeler nor NSF OIG public affairs would answer how many grant applicants have been investigated with Clearview AI, the NSF OIG published that it received a total of 53 plagiarism and falsification allegations in fiscal year 2022, leading to 19 investigations. Lisa Vonder Haar, the Chief of Staff of the NSF OIG, stated by email that: “We have only used Clearview AI to assist us with investigations that were already opened based on allegations of wrongdoing. In other words, we have not used Clearview AI to proactively look for wrongdoing among grant applicants.”

The NSF also refused to respond to questions on how privacy concerns were accounted for in their purchase of Clearview AI’s facial recognition. According to Mr. Wheeler, the purchase of Clearview’s software was “a leadership decision” that resulted from witnessing demonstrations of the software, while Ms. Haar instead asserted that “Staff from our Office of Investigations learned about Clearview AI and recommended it to leadership in our Office of Investigations.”

A purchasing feed for the NSF OIG, developed by the author in a different capacity, shows that the office has further purchased surveillance capabilities from the corporate records analysis firm Sayari Analytics, whom the author previously revealed to be covertly working with the Pentagon on classified hacking and influence operations. The NSF OIG has also spent $86,937 on access to Thomson Reuters CLEAR, which has played a major role in ICE deportations, as well more than $250,000 through two separate contracts with the related tool LexisNexis. (Yet, Mr. Wheeler stated that Clearview AI was a “one-off” tool and that subpoenas are the OIG’s primary means of gathering information.)

The intermediary for the sale of Clearview AI to the NSF OIG, NexTech Solutions, did not respond to a request for comment but has deep ties to both U.S. special operations as well as the vigilante nonprofit known as Skull Games, which is run by former Delta Force operator Jeff Tiegs and was spun out of the ministry of Marine-turned-demonologist Victor Marx. NexTech hosted the sixth Skull Games “hunt”: a periodic vigilante event in which volunteers work with police to deploy facial recognition and sockpuppet social media accounts towards deanonymize sexworkers and pushing for the arrest of their clients.

In fact, NexTech has twice resold Clearview AI to U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) through the same contracting vehicle as its sale to the NSF OIG. Originally signed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on May 1, 2015, NexTech has booked more than $200 million in revenue through roughly 250 child awards under the NASA contract, including through reselling Clearview AI to the NSF and SOCOM. While the involvement of NASA may seem surprising, the overarching NexTech contract is through NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) program, which according to the SEWP website, provides information technology “products and services for all Federal Agencies and their approved contractors”.

While both of NexTech’s Clearview AI contracts with SOCOM were officially listed as through the command’s headquarters, the first of the two contracts, signed on June 14th, makes clear reference to the user being Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The full contract description reads “CLEARVIEW SEARCH DESKTOP AFSOC (SDA)”, and the author understands “SDA” to be a reference to the Program Executive Office for Special Operations Forces Digital Applications (PEO SDA) which operates under SOCOM’s Special Operations Forces Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics (SOF AT&L) arm. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida alongside NexTech Solutions and SOCOM as a whole, PEO SDA’s motto is “Digitally accelerating the kill chain.”

When reached by phone, SOCOM’s Chief of Public Affairs, Jason Baker, confirmed the existence of the two Clearview AI contracts through SOCOM AT&L. Beyond providing a broad overview of SOF AT&L’s role in “looking at new and emerging technologies”, Mr. Baker stated that “I don’t have the details” of the Clearview AI contract, and further noted that, even if he did, “I wouldn’t be able to give them to you”.