Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That resigned from his position at the company to pursue a new professional direction in his life. The company board member position remains his, while he declined to reveal the reasons for his resignation. TechCrunch confirmed the news that Forbes originally reported about Clearview AI.
The internet image scraping activities of Clearview AI that led to the creation of its extensive facial recognition database face ongoing privacy disputes alongside governmental oversight. The company continues to encounter GDPR legal disputes with European data protection authorities as they have paid out over $100 million in European fine judgments from France and the Netherlands. Ton-That asserts that Clearview AI achieved its most profitable year to date in 2024 despite facing financial hurdles.
The company will be managed by co-CEOs Hal Lambert and Richard Schwartz, who both serve as early investors and co-founders of Clearview AI. The investment firm of Lambert launched the MAGA ETF in 2017 while Schwartz worked as an advisor to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani before his role at Clearview AI. Under the Trump administration’s policy shifts, the new leadership plans to seize new business opportunities for the company.
Clearview AI persists with selling its identification technology to police departments, which enables both law enforcement and missing person investigations. Forbes reports that Clearview AI faces difficulties in obtaining major federal contracts while staying unprofitable. The upcoming transformation at the startup creates doubt about both its ongoing commercial strategy and legal defense situation.
