PUBLISHER'S NOTE: (TECHNOLOGY):
In recent years, I have found myself publishing more and more posts on the application of artificial intelligence technology to policing, public safety, and the criminal justice process, not just in North America, but in countries all over the world, including China. Although I accept that properly applied science can play a positive role in our society, I have learned over the years that technologies introduced for the so-called public good, can eventually be used against the people they were supposed to benefit. As reporter Sieeka Khan writes in Science Times: "In 2017, researchers sent a letter to the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security. The researchers expressed their concerns about a proposal to use the AI to determine whether someone who is seeking refuge in the US would become a positive and contributing member of society or if they are likely to become a threat or a terrorist. The other government uses of AI are also being questioned, such as the attempts at setting bail amounts and sentences on criminals, predictive policing and hiring government workers. All of these attempts have been shown to be prone to technical issues and a limit on the data can cause bias on their decisions as they will base it on gender, race or cultural background. Other AI technologies like automated surveillance, facial recognition and mass data collection are raising concerns about privacy, security, accuracy and fairness in a democratic society. As the executive order of Trump demonstrates, there is a massive interest in harnessing AI for its full, positive potential - including massive industrial sales to the law enforcement/criminal justice/defence establishments. But the dangers of misuse, bias and abuse, whether it is intentional or not, have the chance to work against the principles of international democracies. As the use of artificial intelligence grows, the potential for misuse, bias and abuse grows as well. The purpose of this 'technology' series, is to highlight the dangers of artificial intelligence and other police oriented innovations in technology - and to help readers make their own assessments as to whether these innovations will do more harm than good.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: At first I thought this was a joke. I wondered if I was being had. Police use a synthetic forensic technology to tag suspects with an invisible forensic mist of
synthesized DNA, composed of shorter chains than human DNA, so police
can identify them — even months after a crime was committed. Sci-Fi? What movie is this is? Minority Report: (mutants in a vat look into the future.) Well, I no longer am so sure that this is a joke. It's real. You may have been secretly dabbed already and may never know - until the long arm of the law finds you and drags you to justice. Or maybe I am being set up by the very 'fake news' scams I have been warning my readers about. I hope so. Read on!
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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QUOTE ONE OF THE DAY: "Select executive Vice President Joe Maltese says Albany County Sheriff’s
deputies and members of the Albany Police Department are currently
undergoing training involving working with the technology. "And while
it's newer to the U.S. it is not new. It is tried, tested, proven for a
very long time. And many many police agencies in the U.K. and Europe
utilize it. And now all we want to do is replicate that and have a very
good impact in making the community safer for which the law enforcement
officers serve."
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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "Attorney
Derrick Hogan with the law firm Tully-Rinckey has some issues with the
technology including the possibility of a DNA spray device misfiring or
an innocent person at a crime scene being tagged by overspray. "It is
troubling for me, the potential invasion of privacy to put some type
of, for lack of a better term, tracking tool on someone, and then, how
can we be so sure that's going to have pinpoint accuracy in the future?"
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STORY: "Crime Suppression Tool's Effectiveness, Legality To Be Tested," by reporter Dave Lucas, published by WAMC on January 24, 2020.
