N2N face search finds Geddy Lee's mother in Bergen-Belsen photo

AI system

System: From Numbers to Names (N2N) facial-recognition search
Model: Not assessed
Release: Not assessed
Application developer: Daniel Patt (independent project; N2N volunteer team)
Role: Not assessed
Configuration: Not assessed
Inputs and outputs: Not assessed
Autonomy: Not assessed
Workflow: Face-embedding similarity search over about half a million digitized USHMM and Yad Vashem photographs. A reference photograph of the relative supplied by the family. Human confirmation by a family member or the survivor.
Human oversight: Not assessed
Relation to AI: The face-similarity search surfaced the candidate photograph. The identification was confirmed by a family member (Lee) or by the survivor herself (Fixler), not by the archive. The further Yad Vashem family photographs were found by Lee following the lead. No archive statement confirming the identification is among the sources.
AI contribution: The face-similarity search surfaced the candidate photograph. The identification was confirmed by a family member (Lee) or by the survivor herself (Fixler), not by the archive. The further Yad Vashem family photographs were found by Lee following the lead. No archive statement confirming the identification is among the sources.

Benefits

Outcome identifiers: Not assessed
Benefit: N2N face search found Geddy Lee's mother in a Bergen-Belsen DP-camp photo; Lee confirmed it and found more family photos at Yad Vashem
Category: Improved Knowledge Discovery
Status: Not assessed
Beneficiary groups: People. Organizations. Society.
Beneficiaries: Not assessed
Reach: Not assessed
Distribution and access: Not assessed
Duration: Not assessed
Expected?: Yes
Costs and harms: Not assessed

Measurement

Studies: Not assessed
Study design: Not assessed
Measurement: Not assessed
Setting and sample: Not assessed
Measures: Not assessed
Comparison: Not assessed
Results: Not assessed
Additional value from AI: Not assessed
Limitations: Not assessed
Denominators: Not assessed
Materials for replication: Not assessed

Money

Kind of value: Not assessed
Amount: Not assessed
Currency and prices: Not assessed
Period and unit: Not assessed
Realization: Not assessed
Recipients and payers: Not assessed
Gross or net: Not assessed
Included costs: Not assessed
Comparison: Not assessed
Method: Not assessed
Return and payback: Not assessed

People and places

Participants: Developer: Daniel Patt (independent project; N2N volunteer team). Operator: From Numbers to Names (numberstonames.org).
Jurisdictions: Operator: United States.
Ownership and control: Not assessed
Dependencies: Not assessed
Cross-border connections: Not assessed
Geopolitical implications: Not assessed

Follow-up

Conditions for replication: The archive photographs are digitized and indexed by the tool. The relative's face appears in an indexed photograph. A living relative or survivor can recognize and confirm the match.
Replication attempts: 1 follow-up entries. Benefit recurred: 1.
Later findings: 19 December 2022. Six months after the Geddy Lee identification, NPR reported a further identification made with the tool: survivor Blanche Fixler recognized herself, her aunt and her cousin.
Availability: Not assessed
Institutional decision: Not assessed
Grounds: Not assessed
Action and result: Not assessed
Success criterion: Not assessed

Evidence

Source numbers: AIBD-0069-source-0001–0004
Citations: Numbered references below.
Language: Not assessed
Source relationships: Independent, Developer
Original evidence: Not assessed
Access and versions: Not assessed
Supported findings: Not assessed
Evidence links: Not assessed
Evidence strength: Not assessed
Missing evidence: Not assessed

Grades

Assessed benefits: People. Organizations. Society.
Depth: People: 2. Organizations: 1. Society: 1.
Reasons: People: Material to a family: Lee confirmed a previously unknown photograph of his mother at Bergen-Belsen. He found photographs of her extended family (Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post). Fixler found images of herself, her aunt and cousin (NPR). Organizations: Small gain for archives: an anonymous Yad Vashem photograph acquired an identification, but the sources record no formal archival update. Society: Small: two documented identifications among millions of unidentified faces indexed, per the sources.
Observed or intended: Not assessed
Rubric: Not assessed
Assessor and date: Not assessed
Alternative assessments: Not assessed
Fill: Independently reported

Entry details

Kind

Not assessed

Related entries

Same kind of system and task, a public facial-image search engine matching a face across a photo corpus: PimEyes lacked safeguards against misuse such as stalking, harming private individuals and their privacy.

Field

History and archives. Holocaust archives and family history.

Purpose

Identify unnamed faces in Holocaust-era photo and video archives and help descendants find images of relatives

Dates

Date basis unassessed: 2022 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.

Stage

Not assessed

Version

SHA-256: 3f74741e64fe…

References

Other identifiers: AI Incident Database: 109.
Category mappings: Not assessed
Brief: Not assessed
Revisions: 6 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.

Sources

News report Independent author

The Times of Israel (2022). Google engineer identifies anonymous faces in WWII photos with AI facial recognition. The Times of Israel.
News report Independent author

The Jerusalem Post (2022). AI facial recognition tech identifies rocker Geddy Lee's mother in anonymous Holocaust photos. The Jerusalem Post.
News report Independent author

NPR (2022). Artificial Intelligence helped connect a Holocaust survivor with photos of her past. NPR.
Press release Developer

From Numbers to Names (n.d.). Home page. numberstonames.org.