Standards and Procedures

From KTN AI Forensic Group

Standards and procedures do apply to the use of AI. I didn't see what was wrong with the ACPO guidelines and suchlike but a discussion between myself (Frank) and Godfried threw up an important aspect I hadn't considered.

The obvious application of AI to forensics is sifting through a huge volume of data to find the interesting bits. What's less obvious is the use of AI to evaluate evidence that's been turned up. It wasn't obvious to me because there's no way I'd trust a computer to apply the sort of real-world reasoning a human in order to bring meaning to the facts - at least not in my lifetime.

CCTV EXAMPLE

Godfried's example changed that. Supposing you're looking at a distorted image (CCTV, for example). YOU can't see who it is, but can it be enhanced? Well yes it can, and there's nothing new there. But supposing you used some wonderful new AI method to do this. The frightening idea that popped into my head was a database of suspects to provide hints? An AI system could potentially end up sticking someone's head onto the shoulders of every blurred miscreant on the tape simply because it was the best match.

Current Standards

I'm not expert on the current standards. Would the example above get past it? If you know what you're talking about, please fill in this section. I suspect this is an area that is at last worthy of examination.