AI can make serious mistakes, as shown by a recent example: A grandmother ended up in jail because criminal officers trusted an artificial intelligence.
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A woman loses everything because an AI thinks she is a criminal and law enforcement does not question the results of the artificial intelligence. This is reported by the magazine Inforum, which spoke to the affected woman.
She reportedly spent 6 months unjustly in prison before the confusion was clarified.
AI facial recognition software identifies a person who was never there
What was the situation like? Court documents show that local police allegedly used facial recognition software to identify the woman in the surveillance video. The woman in the video allegedly withdrew tens of thousands of dollars using a fake military ID from the US Army.
The software identified the person as a 50-year-old mother of 3 children, grandmother of five grandchildren from Tennessee. Investigators then checked social media accounts and the woman’s driver’s license. They concluded that due to stature, hairstyle, and hair color, the suspect must be the suspect.
The police arrested the alleged suspect in Tennessee and brought her to the state of North Dakota.
When was the woman mistaken for someone else? It was not until 6 months later that it came to light that it must have been a mistake: Receipts could prove that the woman bought cigarettes at a gas station at the time of the fraud and allegedly ordered food in Tennessee on the same day. Between North Dakota and Tennessee, there are at least 1,500 kilometers. And the woman herself has never been to North Dakota in her entire life.
The recognition software presumably made an error, and the investigators did not verify the results.
Receipts for cigarettes and dinner prove the innocence of the 50-year-old
How did the situation end? After 6 months, she could return home to her own state, but she still suffers from the consequences of the arrest. Moreover, she is said to have lost everything: Due to her imprisonment, she could not pay her bills and is said to have lost her home, car, and pet.
She reportedly did not receive an apology from the police. And the police are still investigating the bank fraud, and no further arrests are said to have occurred.
Artificial intelligence repeatedly makes serious errors. In one case, an AI tool deleted a developer’s work in seconds. The AI had arbitrarily ignored all backups and stated itself that it was a catastrophic error and the data could not be recovered: An AI ignores all measures and arbitrarily deletes a developer’s entire work in seconds
