Police to use AI to identify child abuse images
Plan would cut costs and help officers avoid psychological trauma
Police forces are planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify images of child abuse, in a bid to prevent officers from suffering psychological trauma.
Image recognition software is already used by the Metropolitan Police’s forensics department, which last year searched more than 53,000 seized devices for incriminating evidence, The Daily Telegraph reports. But the systems are not “sophisticated enough to spot indecent images and video”.
However, plans are being developed to move sensitive data collected by police to cloud providers such as Google and Microsoft, according to the newspaper.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This would allow specialists to harness the tech giants’ massive computing power for analytics, without needing to invest in a multimillion-pound hardware infrastructure.
It would also reduce the risk of police officers suffering psychological trauma as a result of analysing the images, as they would largely be removed from the process.
The Metropolitan’s chief of digital forensics, Mark Stokes, told The Daily Telegraph: “We have to grade indecent images for different sentencing, and that has to be done by human beings right now.
“You can imagine that doing that for year on year is very disturbing.”
With the help of Silicon Valley providers, AI could be trained to detect abusive images “within two to three years”, Stokes adds.
Image searches is not the only use of AI technology by the authorities. In May, The Verge reported that Durham Police were planning to use AI technology to determine whether arrested suspects should remain in custody.
The system, which was trialled over the summer, gauges a suspect’s risk to society based on a range of factors including the severity of their crime and whether they are a “flight risk”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - November 2, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - anti-fascism, early voter turnout, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Geoff Capes obituary: shot-putter who became the World’s Strongest Man
In the Spotlight The 'mighty figure' was a two-time Commonwealth Champion and world-record holder
By The Week UK Published
-
Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliation
Talking Point Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
By The Week UK Published
-
Teen suicide puts AI chatbots in the hot seat
In the spotlight A Florida mom has targeted custom AI chatbot platform Character.AI and Google in a lawsuit over her son's death
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
'Stunningly lifelike' AI podcasts are here
Under the Radar Users are amazed – and creators unnerved – by Google tool that generates human conversation from text in moments
By Abby Wilson Published
-
OpenAI eyes path to 'for-profit' status as more executives flee
In the spotlight The tension between creating technology for humanity's sake and collecting a profit is coming to a head for the creator of ChatGPT
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Microsoft's Three Mile Island deal: How Big Tech is snatching up nuclear power
In the spotlight The company paid for access to all the power made by the previously defunct nuclear plant
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
How will the introduction of AI change Apple's iPhone?
Today's Big Question 'Apple Intelligence' is set to be introduced on the iPhone 16 as part of iOS 18
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
How UK companies are tracking their employees
The Explainer PwC is latest to use geo-location to monitor workers, in 'sinister' increasingly widespread trend
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
AI and the 'cocktail party problem'
Under The Radar The human ear can naturally filter out background noise. Now technology has been developed to do the same
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
AI is cannibalizing itself. And creating more AI.
The Explainer Artificial intelligence consumption is outpacing the data humans are creating
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published