NTA team nabs impersonators in EPFO exam using AI tool

NTA said that the impersonators were caught at Noida, Kolkata and Roorkee examination centres, who had come to sit for the EPFO Social Security Assistant exams

New Delhi: National Testing Agency (NTA) team, with the help of artificial intelligence tools, on Friday caught impersonators during the ongoing EPFO examination.

NTA said that the impersonators were caught at Noida, Kolkata and Roorkee examination centres, who had come to sit for the EPFO Social Security Assistant exams.

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The Social Security Assistant Recruitment Examination for the Employees Provident Fund Organisation is being conducted by NTA on 18th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd August.

NTA said that at a center in Noida Sector 62, the AI tool, facial recognition check, which is a mandatory requirement at the centre, had failed for one the candidates raising an alarm. Following the alarm, AADHAAR authentication check was initiated which disclosed the actual picture of the applicant. The impersonator admitted to the wrong doing and was handed over to the Police for further action. Similarly, NTA also caught, one each in Kolkata and in Roorkee. As part of a comprehensive control mechanism, NTA had deployed several control mechanisms to check impersonation. NTA said that they incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) checks using different tools as part of their pre-exam and during exam initiatives to check malpractices and impersonation during the ongoing EPFO Social Security Assistant Examination being conducted by the them.

During the candidate registration process, candidate images are checked using different tools to identify images which do not match NTA standards (example, size, duplicate, quality, etc). Identified candidates are subsequently validated on the day of the exam at the center by Biometric and facial recognition teams and NTA observers. At the exam centre, all candidates coming to take the exam have to mandatorily get their fingerprints registered with the special software. On the spot photograph of the candidates is also taken which can then be, matched with the database in suspect cases.

The system deployed relies on the state-of-the-art AI technology, iFace which can ascertain the identity of the candidate through cross verifying the photo on the exam admit card with the live photograph of the candidate that is taken at the exam center. NTA said that the technology is being relied upon to detect in real-time any possible discrepancy in candidate’s identity.