Researchers in China claim they have developed the world’s first
artificial intelligence (AI) capable of analyzing case files and charging
people with crimes. The Orwellian device can already identify ‘dissent’ against
the state and suggest sentences for supposed criminals, removing people from
the prosecution process and human oversight.
The program can file a charge based on a written case description with
97% accuracy, states the Chinese Academy of Science team who developed the
system, but many see this as a device that can be potentially used for
nefarious purposes.
The cases the robot can prosecute include common crimes which include
things like “subversion of the political power of the State” and “sabotaging
national unity” — vague crimes often charged against dissidents and which the
UN believes can be used against the ‘communication of thoughts or ideas’. The
fact that an AI can prosecute a variance in views or unorthodox beliefs is
causing concern about what these terms constitute and whether the state could
use the system to expand their legal definition – with no one to take
responsibility for the burgeoning civil limitations.
The robot was built and tested in the Shanghai Pudong People’s Procuratorate,
the country’s most extensive and busiest district prosecution office – where
the team will expand it to include more crimes and a higher caseload.
According to Professor Shi Yong, director at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences’ big data and knowledge management laboratory, the technology could
reduce prosecutors’ daily workload, allowing them to focus on more challenging
tasks. Here he almost hints at an automated doctrine with his comment: “The
system can replace prosecutors in the decision-making process to a certain
extent.”
The South China Morning Post reported that the algorithm, a unique mathematical formula that
makes up AI, can run on a standard desktop computer and press charges based on
1,000 illegal or discordant traits plucked from the human-generated case
description.
Engineers honed the machine using
more than 17,000 cases from 2015 to 2020. Presently, it can identify and press
charges for Shanghai’s eight most commonly committed crimes: credit card fraud,
gambling, dangerous driving, theft, fraud, intentional injury, obstructing
official duties, and ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ – a term used to
mollify nonconformists. But, for now, the system has no role in the
decision-making process and does not suggest the length of prison sentences.
Despite this, there are already fears it will fail to keep up with
changing social standards and could be used to subdue progressive
‘freethinkers.’
AI technology already exists in law enforcement, but this would be the
first time it presses charges.
For instance, image recognition and digital forensics help with caseloads
in Germany; at the same time, China has used a tool known as System 206 since
2016 to evaluate the evidence, conditions for an arrest, and if the suspect
poses any danger to the public.
Forging ahead in the global AI race, Chinese authorities launched the
country’s first cyber court in 2017, allowing parties in cyber-related lawsuits
such as e-commerce to appear via video in front of AI-based judges. While the
idea is to help the system deal with larger caseloads, human judges still
monitor every step before making a ruling.
Because making such decisions would require a machine to identify and
translate complex, human language into a format that a computer could
understand. A program known as natural language processing (NLP) is needed to
analyze text, recordings, or images created or uploaded by humans and requires
supercomputers that prosecutors cannot access.
In a step towards an NLP system on a basic computer, the team plans to
upgrade their machine to recognize less common crimes and file multiple charges
against a single suspect.
One prosecutor in Guangzhou, who asked not to be named, voiced concerns
about the new computerized judge and jury: “The accuracy of 97 percent may be
high from a technological point of view, but there will always be a chance of a
mistake. Who will take responsibility when it happens? The prosecutor, the machine,
or the designer of the algorithm?” He added that many human prosecutors will
not want computers interfering in their work, adding: “AI may help detect a
mistake, but it cannot replace humans in making a decision.”
To sum up, it will be interesting to see what happens when extenuating
circumstances are removed from a legal system and replaced with a
one-thought-fits-all program.
Reference:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/china-has-created-the-worlds-first-ai-prosecutor/
