Copies without an original: the performativity of biometric bordering technologies

Abstract

We analyze two examples of biometrics in civil registration and migration contexts (the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees’ voice biometry system and the UK HMPO passport photo checker tool) to show how, rather than “recognizing” a person, biometrics create a field of intelligibility within which the shifting positionalities of bodies are “stabilized” and deemed recognizable. We show how the obfuscation of this process has had violent racializing and gendering effects on the bodies of AI participants. We present our performative approach as a strategic intervention at the intersections of AI ethics and biometrics.