back to article Here we go again with more AI crime prediction for policing

The government of President Javier Milei in Argentina last week announced the creation of an artificial intelligence group within the country's Cybercrime and Cyber ​​Affairs Directorate that will use statistical software to predict crime. "The mission of the Artificial Intelligence Unit Applied To Security (UIAAS) is the …

  1. david1024

    Soo.....

    After this has been running for a while... won't it prioritize based on it's previous outputs? e.g. if it initially predicts a crime in area 'A', and the cops patrol and find a crime or 2... then repeat this a few months and eventually you create the hotspot you are looking for... and correct me if I'm wrong here... isn't this the problem the AI was supposed to eliminate?

    1. Wellyboot Silver badge

      Re: Soo.....

      It will only send plod to known problem areas, at least until it can predict accurately that a bunch of Bananas will be stolen from 29 Acacia Road at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.

      1. herman Silver badge

        Re: Soo.....

        They would love to be able to arrest little Johnny Rotten before he commits the crime and convict him of criminal wrong thinking.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Soo.....

        They ought to ask Fiona (sweetheart of the airwaves) how she always knew about a crime in progress....

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. SVD_NL Silver badge

      Re: Soo.....

      Right on the money. These systems have 2 main issues:

      1. They are trained on previous crime rate data. so if your cops have been biased in the past (and let's be honest, this really isn't an "if"), your model will have the same biases.

      2. They are usually self-reinforcing, so over time these biases will be amplified.

    3. vistisen

      Re: Soo.....

      Funny you should say that, apparently the new AI testing of hand baggage scanning reacts badly to bags that have contained bananas... Too much potassium.

  2. EricM

    IBM, Accenture, and Oracle, asked to develop Prometea, estimated the project would cost $100,000.

    Surely there are some zeros missing...

    For that kind of money those companies cannot even develop a cost estimate ...

    1. Derezed
      Gimp

      , asked to develop Prometea, estimated the project would cost $100,000.

      That’s unfair, for that money they can have a very rough initial draft estimating the cost of producing the first phase of the cost estimate. A bargain in any local councils’ books.

  3. EricM

    > while AI systems can suffer from inaccuracy, high cost, bias, and other limitations, "there is consensus by the majority of the researchers on the importance of predictive algorithms on the policing landscape".

    So: We know, it's expensive and inherently broken, but it's important?

    What kind of BS argument is that?

    I've heard politicians putting out this kind of nonsense, but "resarchers"?

    Come on ...

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Come on indeed. Obvious backhander/kickback political favor is obvious.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      The article doesn't say what sort of "researchers" were asked, and I don't have the internal fortitude to try to track down the original report right now. My guess is the "researchers" in question have rather dubious qualifications.

    3. OhForF' Silver badge

      More research is always important to the researchers

      "Do you think it is important that further research on predictive algorithms in the policing landscape is done and well funded?"

    4. Rafael #872397
      Boffin

      researchers

      Remember the Tobacco Industry Research Committee?

    5. SVD_NL Silver badge

      To be fair, they never mentioned what the consensus actually is....

  4. MrReynolds2U

    Future crime?

    I want my minority report.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Javier Milei, escoria de la tierra

    Wow! Great way for yellow bellied neofascist cowards to go "but, I was just obeing orders" or "I'm just doing my job" as they take ever less responsibility for both, their deadly over-reaction, and deadly inaction: VioGén score: LOW RISK Lobna Hemid 2022 Madrid. Idiots!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Javier Milei, escoria de la tierra

      "I'm not a racist, the statistics clearly show that this group are more likely to commit these crimes"

      Completely avoiding that they're being picked up for other crimes.

      e.g. with drug posession, an even distribution of people holding across the populace would show up as having a bias if a certain demographic were arrested more frequently. They'd then be subject to more searches and be found to be posessing drugs more frequently.

  6. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Predicting judicial decisions is not terribly impressive

    Prometea "predicts the solution to a judicial case in less than 20 seconds with a 96 percent success rate"

    And how would that compare to, say, a simple HMM trained on a few parameters such as the relative wealth of the defendant?

    In fact, since the article suggests this was developed by a single programmer for the equivalent of $500, that may well be all it is. Or some other simple classification system, like Naive Bayes or a decision tree or an SVM. Frankly it sounds like a student project.

    But the real issue is that predicting "the solution to a judicial case" just means you've automated whatever distribution was already in the system, improving nothing except the cost of maintaining whatever level of (in)justice was already there, while covering it with a veneer of "computer says so". It's a terrible, terrible idea.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: Predicting judicial decisions is not terribly impressive

      What about the other 4%?

      1. xyz Silver badge

        Re: Predicting judicial decisions is not terribly impressive

        Rounding error. They'll get put in a dark space and forgotten about.

    2. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

      Re: Predicting judicial decisions is not terribly impressive

      96% says more about the judicial system than the software. I can predict the outcome of a Russian election with 100% certainty, but other countries are harder to read.

  7. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    and even may decrease purchases

    Guaranteed, chez Barnes...

  8. Plest Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Let's not forget

    This is the same bloke who pulled out and started a f**king chainsaw at an election rally. Hardly the sort of person you want to trust to make high level tech predications and directives is it now?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Let's not forget

      As usual with his type, his policies can be reduced to "Careful mate, that foreigner wants your cookie" (original source). This will be no different except with AI which somehow manages to include a high proportion of immigrants in its predictions, and the simple act of arresting them on some LLM's orders proves that they must be up to no good and must be sent back.

  9. aizuchi
    FAIL

    > "...there is consensus by the majority of the researchers on the importance of predictive algorithms on the policing landscape..."

    Those who get paid to create/promote it will justify it, or must seek reward and recognition elsewhere.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Isn't this just profiling?

  11. Tron Silver badge

    Will this Dredd bot be able to...

    ...pre-identify outsourced projects of little value that may never actually work but which are exploited by politicians as mechanisms to syphon tax dollars into the pockets of their mates? Will it be able to spot other examples of corruption in national and local government before they happen, and will those likely to be corrupt be turfed out of office?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will this Dredd bot be able to...

      if it did Milei would already be in jail

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jesus christ

    There was "pre-crime" in that movie and look how bad that turned out. Same here.

    Someone has fallen for the AI wank currently flying about. Its not proper AI so this just won't work and instead will make the consultant all the money, while they sit in the corner sniggering knowing they've con the company into signing a bollocks contract.

    Getting sick of all this AI talk then being told "You should really be getting onboard with this. Its the future." when at work and being classed as "difficult" when stating the AI bollocks is currently a hugh waste of money.

  13. Blogitus Maximus

    Is it...

    The UIASS is or UIAAS?

    The former seems more accurate.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In trying to come up with a way to direct resources to potential hotspots they create an obvious avenue for diversion tactics.

    Fail hard, Mister Argentine government.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    THX1138

    Sorry citizen, the computer says “yes”

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    of course

    of course this is driven by a far right trumpian nutter

  17. teebie

    "predicts the solution to a judicial case in less than 20 seconds with a 96 percent success rate"

    So there is reasonable doubt about every decision.

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