The Chinese authorities are interested in the field of predictive analysis technology, facial recognition and other aspects related to artificial intelligence (AI), which can be used to prevent future crimes. Analyzing patterns of behavior, the authorities will notify local police about potential criminals. Yes, you read that correctly, as in a science fiction film Steven Spielberg’s “minority report”.
Company Cloud Walk, the headquarters office which is located in Guangzhou, conducting machine learning systems, facial recognition, and analysis and evaluation of large data sets to track the level of risk to potential offenders. Those who are regulars of stores selling guns or frequents the various transport nodes are likely to be marked by the system. Under “suspicion” can get even visitors to hardware stores, because these places are considered by the authorities to areas of “high risk”.
“Of course, if someone buys a kitchen knife, there is nothing criminal. But if this same person after buying a bag and a hammer, for the system he will become suspicious”, — said the representative of the company Cloud Walk in conversation with Financial Times.
Software Cloud Walk already connected on the network with the database of the police, more than 50 cities and provinces and can flag suspicious individuals in real-time. The country also already has a system of “personal pereidentifikatsii” used as a measure of crime prevention: the system is able to identify people in different places, even if they wear different clothes.
“We can use the system re-ID to search for suspicious people wandering here and there in the same area or wearing a mask,” commented the Financial Times Lazy Biao, Professor in the sphere of image recognition, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“Using re-ID it is also possible to trace the path of movement of a person over a large area”.
China, of course, is one of those perfect places where similar technology could be used to the fullest. Through the use of more than 176 million surveillance cameras, the government has a huge comprehensive databases on its citizens. In other words, the country provides a vast Playground for gathering all required information and, therefore, can effectively train their own AI system, without any legal obstacles.
But this is not the only path through which China can expand the abilities of their AI systems. The government recently announced a large-scale, thought-out and funded plan for the transformation of China into a world leader in the sphere of artificial intelligence by 2030. The government set a system of facial recognition systems in schools to prevent cheating by students in examinations in the streets to prevent violations of the rules, pedestrians, and even in public toilets (!) to reduce inefficient spending of toilet paper (!!!), as writes portal Futurism. So it is not surprising if the government wants to use the same technology to fight crime and maybe even their predictions.
“If competently to use our smart systems and tools, we will be able to know beforehand… who might be a terrorist or is planning to do something bad,” — said Vice-Minister of science and technology If Men of the publishing house Financial Times.
No matter how the attitude to the plans of China to use a system that was created is clearly inspired by the movie “minority report”, artificial intelligence can actually make the world a safer place. Despite the fact that AI certainly has the potential to be used as tools for observation, it also can be used to protect personal privacy, information about health, financial situation, and also as a means to prevent hacker attacks. Artificial intelligence could answer for the security cameras, robot guards and help in creating a more effective military technology. AI will be capable of at least 90 percent reduction in the number of cases of car accidents. In other words, one could argue and be against the use of AI in certain areas, but foolish and short-sighted to argue against artificial intelligence technologies in General, at least if you are really worried about the future of our security and privacy in the Internet, and beyond.
China wants to introduce the technology of “prediction of crimes”
Nikolai Khizhnyak