AI Is Watching You: The Future of Crime Prevention or a Step Toward Surveillance?

We live in an era where sci-fi is becoming reality. Remember Minority Report with Tom Cruise (2002)? In the film, criminals were arrested before they could commit a crime. As a result, the murder rate was almost reduced to zero. 

It seemed flawless, but... there’s always a ‘but’ when any system, even a human-based one, gains too much control.

The film describes a not-so-distant future—2054. In 2002 it felt like a distant fiction, but here, in 2024, South Korea is now testing artificial intelligence to prevent crimes before they happen.

It sounds incredible, but researchers assure that AI Dejaview achieved an impressive 82.8% accuracy in predicting potential crimes. 

Actually, it’s all about the analysis. The system analyzes real-time footage to detect and potentially stop criminal activity.

Equipped with machine learning capabilities, Dejaview can recognize patterns and warning signs of possible crimes. So, the system flags some areas as high-risk, which require closer attention. It assesses things like time of day, location, past crime records, and other relevant data to gauge the likelihood of suspicious behavior.

It’s an exciting step forward, but as this system evolves, we could face challenges similar to those in Minority Report. The risk of over-relying on technology to predict human behavior is real, so sooner or later, ethical concerns and errors may emerge. As you depend on AI, it might overshadow human judgment, reduce accountability and entail mistakes, thus, affecting innocent people. 

What about transparency? AI operates like a “black box”. How are decisions made? We don’t know. How then can we challenge unfair decisions or misuse of power?

And how does it comply with existing laws and human rights? 

#AI #CrimePrevention #ArtificialIntelligence #Transparency #HumanRights #Surveillance