An 18-year-old from New York is suing Apple for $1 billion - saying an erroneous facial recognition system in their stores wrongfully led to his arrest.

According to the Washington Post, Ousmane Bah because Apple’s instore facial recognition system insisted he was a serial shoplifter.

Apple had told its software to look for shoplifters but unfortunately it thought all black people looked the same.

It didn’t take much for a human at the New York Police Department to conclude that Bah looked nothing like the shoplifter.

 Bah had been charged in multiple jurisdictions including New York, Massachusetts, Delaware and New Jersey, according to the lawsuit. Charges in three cases against Bah have been dropped, but the New Jersey case is pending.

Bah said he had an interim learner's permit, which does not have a photo, that had either been lost or stolen. His lawyer said the permit may have been presented as identification at Apple stores, erroneously matching Bah's name with the thief's face in the company's security system. That means every time the perpetrator walked into an Apple store, his face would register as Bah on Apple's surveillance.

There is a long history of AI software not being able to see the difference between ethnic minorities but you think a human would have eyeballed the results before spending the cops around to a poor kid’s house.