The two aren't the same thing at all. It's legal to own guns, but illegal to shoot someone with one. It's legal to write software that opens network connections, but illegal to use said software against a target on the Internet that doesn't want said traffic.
Similarly, it's legal to write or download a neural network that is programmed for facial recognition. Same for a basic crawler bot.
Similarly, it's legal to write or download a neural network that is programmed for facial recognition. Same for a basic crawler bot.