"When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success."
Do you blame the blacksmith for making of a knife? I haven't worked on facial recognition or AI but I have made peace with the fact that some things are so dual-usage that you have to accept that it will be used for both good and evil. Just look at cryptography for one. There is no such thing as 'encryption which works only for the good guys'. Just like there is no thing as a 'working gun which does not harm the innocent'.
The 'do nothing and don't advance' option is just an illusion. Because in actuality what happens is "Only the worst people get the option.". Life isn't very kind to those attempting moral purity unfortunately. There is a reason 'worldly' and 'morally pragmatic' are synonymous.
If you want to reduce harm, if possible countermeasures are probably the best you can do. It varies by specific technology. Depending upon the tech this may ironically involve working with the very thing you are trying to weaken. Or it may be something completely different, say working in materials science instead of ballistics.
- Robert J. Oppenheimer