British American Tobacco said it is testing two new technologies to restrict access to tobacco products for minors, including a purchase verification system through a smartphone app and on-site facial recognition technology based on artificial intelligence.

According to a report by 24chasa on December 16, members of the Scientific Research and Development Council of British American Tobacco (hereinafter referred to as "BАТ") revealed that BAT is testing two technologies to restrict access to tobacco products for minors.

Since March 2023, Dr. James Murphy has served as director of the Scientific Research and Development Council of BAT. Murphy pointed out that over the past decade, BAT has invested more than 10 billion euros in scientific research on new tobacco products. Earlier this year, BAT launched the "Omni" scientific resource library, which aims to systematically integrate these research results, and plans to have 50 million new tobacco product users by 2030 and achieve half of its revenue from new tobacco products by 2035.

In the face of the global trend towards low-risk products, Murphy stressed that BAT's innovative products such as e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn devices and nicotine bags, although not completely risk-free, have significantly lower risks than traditional cigarettes.

In the face of the increasing interest of minors in e-cigarettes and their alternatives, the official said that BAT is developing restrictive technologies, one of which is a purchase verification system through a smartphone app to ensure that only adults can register and purchase such products; the other is an AI-based on-site facial recognition technology that can instantly determine whether the purchaser is an adult. These technologies are currently being tested around the world, not only for tobacco products, but also for other products that are limited to adult consumers.