Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / AI Could Be Used to Solve Britain’s Most Notorious Cold Cases
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Thousands of individuals utilizing the London Underground were monitored through
- 0:04AI surveillance software that analyzed their movements, behaviours and body
- 0:09language to determine if they were engaging in criminal activities
- 0:14or were in potentially dangerous situations. As revealed by new
- 0:18documents obtained by Wired. This machine learning technology was integrated
- 0:24with live CCTV footage to identify aggressive actions, the presence
- 0:29of weapons such as guns or knives, and incidents of
- 0:32individuals falling onto the tracks or evading fare payment. From
- 0:38October twenty twenty two to the end of September twenty
- 0:42twenty three, Transport for London TfL, which manages the city's
- 0:47tube and bus services, conducted tests on eleven algorithms to
- 0:52observe individuals at Wilsden Green Tube station, located in the
- 0:56northwest of London. This proof of concept trial marks the
- 1:00first instance in which the transport authority has utilized AI
- 1:05alongside live video feeds to create alerts for frontline personnel.
- 1:11During the testing period, over forty four thousand alerts were generated,
- 1:16with nineteen thousand of these being communicated to station staff
- 1:20in real time. Documents provided to Wired in response to
- 1:24a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that Transport for
- 1:28London TfL employed various computer vision algorithms to monitor individual's
- 1:34behavior within the station. This marks the first occasion on
- 1:38which comprehensive details of the trial have been disclosed. This
- 1:43development comes after TfL announced in December its intention to
- 1:47broaden the application of artificial intelligence to identify fair evasion
- 1:53at additional stations throughout the British capital. In the trial
- 1:57conducted at Wilsden Greenation that previously accommodated twenty five thousand
- 2:03visitors daily prior to the COVID nineteen pandemic, the AI
- 2:07system was implemented to identify potential safety incidents, enabling staff
- 2:13to assist individuals in need. Additionally, it aimed to address
- 2:17criminal and antisocial behavior. Three documents provided to Wired outline
- 2:23the application of AI models in recognizing wheelchairs, strollers vaping,
- 2:29unauthorized access, and individuals placing themselves at risk by approaching
- 2:34the edges of train platforms. The documents, which contain partial redactions,
- 2:40also reveal instances of errors made by the AI during
- 2:43the trial. For example, it incorrectly flagged children accompanying their
- 2:49parents through ticket barriers as potential fare evaders and struggled
- 2:53to distinguish between folding and non folding bicycles. Furthermore, police
- 2:59officers participated in the trial by displaying a machete and
- 3:03a firearm within the view of CCTV cameras while the
- 3:07station was closed, to enhance the system's capability to detect weapons.
- 3:12Privacy experts who have examined the documents express concerns regarding
- 3:16the reliability of object detection algorithms. They also highlight the
- 3:21ambiguity surrounding the number of individuals aware of the trial,
- 3:25and caution that such surveillance systems could potentially be enhanced
- 3:30in the future to incorporate more advanced detection technologies or
- 3:34facial recognition software aimed at identifying specific individuals. Although this
- 3:40trial did not utilize facial recognition, the application of AI
- 3:45in public settings to monitor behaviours, assess body language, and
- 3:49deduce protected characteristics presents numerous scientific, ethical, legal, and societal
- 3:55dilemmas similar to those posed by facial recognition technology, states
- 4:01Michael Burtwhistle, Associate director at the independent research organization the
- 4:07Ada Lovelace Institute. Some of the most infamous cold cases
- 4:11in Britain may find resolution through the application of artificial intelligence.
- 4:16Following a trial that demonstrated its capability to analyze evidence
- 4:21that would require eighty one years of human labour in
- 4:24under two days, law enforcement leaders are optimistic that this
- 4:29technology could be utilized in the future to efficiently process
- 4:34numerous case files, thereby assisting detectives in uncovering new investigative avenues.
- 4:41A trial conducted by Avon and Somerset Police employed an
- 4:46AI tool known as Souza, developed in Australia to evaluate
- 4:50twenty seven intricate cases using this digital investigation platform. The
- 4:56findings revealed that the AI could assess all evidential materials
- 5:01within thirty hours, a task that would have taken a
- 5:04human up to eighty one years to complete manually. The
- 5:08police force is now preparing to conduct a more extensive
- 5:11trial to further explore the advantages of this technology and
- 5:16adapt it for evidential purposes within UK law enforcement. Gavin Stevens,
- 5:23Chairman of the National Police Chief's Council, expressed that this
- 5:26technology could prove to be extremely beneficial in addressing the
- 5:30protracted reviews of cold cases that remain unsolved. The platform's
- 5:36website indicates that the tool is capable of efficiently analyzing
- 5:40various types of data, including video footage, financial transactions, call records,
- 5:46social media interactions, emails, images, documents, as well as information
- 5:52from phones and computer hard drives.