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Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

cnn.com

21–30 of 221 posts

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#21
post #20

AI is a liability issue waiting to happen. And this is just another example.

It's the opposite, it's absolution from liability. "The AI did it" is the ultimate excuse to avoid accepting responsibility and consequences.

Courts are already refusing to accept this excuse.

https://pub.towardsai.net/the-air-gapped-chronicles-the-cour...

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a tool. Used incorrectly will lead to errors. Just like a hammer, used incorrectly could hit the users finger.

Used incorrectly will lead to errors. Only one small little problem --- there is no way to tell if you are using it "correctly". The only way to be sure is to not use it. Using it basically boils down to, "Do you feel lucky?". The Fargo police didn't get lucky in this case. And now the liability kicks in.

Now the "qualified" immunity kicks in.

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#23
post #20

AI is a liability issue waiting to happen. And this is just another example.

It's the opposite, it's absolution from liability. "The AI did it" is the ultimate excuse to avoid accepting responsibility and consequences.

... which is why the institutions that assign responsibility and consequences need to make it really clear that excuse won't fly. With illustrative examples.

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#24
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dynamite is a tool. But we don't hand it out to anyone who wants to play with it.

We used to until quite recently. Anybody could buy dynamite at the hardware store. We had to end this because of criminals using it to hurt people.

Except this time the criminals are police.

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for AI to follow a similar trajectory over time.

Yes, regulation is inevitable.

Regulation is impossible. The AI barons literally control the federal government, so not even state regulations get tried.

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a tool. Used incorrectly will lead to errors. Just like a hammer, used incorrectly could hit the users finger.

Used incorrectly will lead to errors. Only one small little problem --- there is no way to tell if you are using it "correctly". The only way to be sure is to not use it. Using it basically boils down to, "Do you feel lucky?". The Fargo police didn't get lucky in this case. And now the liability kicks in.

Some basic investigatory police work (the kind they did before AI) would have revealed the mistake before an innocent woman’s life was destroyed.

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#28
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used incorrectly will lead to errors. Only one small little problem --- there is no way to tell if you are using it "correctly". The only way to be sure is to not use it. Using it basically boils down to, "Do you feel lucky?". The Fargo police didn't get lucky in this case. And now the liability kicks in.

Now the "qualified" immunity kicks in.

We will find out. But relying on AI is likely to cost the city of Fargo in one way or another. They say they have already stopped using AI and returned to good old fashioned human investigation.

https://www.lawlegalhub.com/how-much-is-a-wrongful-arrest-la...

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is enormous variability in how hard a tool is to use correctly, how likely it is to go wrong, and how severe the consequences are. AI has a wide range on all those variables because its use cases vary so widely compared to a hammer. The use case here is police facial recognition. Not hitting nails. The parent wasn't saying "AI is a liability" with no context.

When somebody uses a tool to hurt somebody, they need to be held accountable. If I smack you with a hammer, that needs to be prosecuted. Using AI is no different. The problem here is incidental to the tool; it was done by the cops and therefore nobody will be held accountable.

Systems are also a tool. Whoever institutes and helps build the system that systematically results in harm is also responsible.

That would be the vendors, the system planners, and the institutions that greenlit this. It would also include the larger financial tech circle that is trying to drive large scale AI adoption. Like Peter Thiel, who sees technology as an "alternative to politics". I.e. a way to circumvent democracy [1]

[1] https://stavroulapabst.substack.com/p/techxgeopolitics-18-te...

Re: Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

#30
Without even looking at the AI part, I have a single question: Did anybody investigate? That's it.

Whether it's AI that flagged her, or a witness who saw her, or her IP address appeared on the logs. Did anybody bothered to ask her "where were you the morning of july 10th between 3 and 4pm. But that's not what happened, they saw the data and said "we got her".

But this is the worst part of the story:

> And after her ordeal, she never plans to return to the state: “I’m just glad it’s over,” she told WDAY. “I’ll never go back to North Dakota.”

That's the lesson? Never go back to North Dakota. No, challenge the entire system. A few years back it was a kid accused of shoplifting [0]. Then a man dragged while his family was crying [1]. Unless we fight back, we are all guilty until cleared.

[0]: https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/29/apple_sis_lawsuit/

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23628394

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