# AI-Powered Facial Mask Removal Is Not Suitable For Identification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27747 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27747/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 13 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [VGGFace2: A dataset for recognising faces across pose and age](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.08092/) (2017)
- [AdaFace: Quality Adaptive Margin for Face Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.00964/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recently, crowd-sourced online criminal investigations have used generative-AI to enhance low-quality visual evidence. In one high-profile case, social-media users circulated an "AI-unmasked" image of a federal agent involved in a fatal shooting, fueling a wide-spread misidentification. In response to this and similar incidents, we conducted a large-scale analysis evaluating the efficacy and risks of commercial AI-powered facial unmasking, specifically assessing whether the resulting faces can be reliably matched to true identities.