AI tools are developed with the aim of preventing crime with tools such as computer vision, pattern recognition, and the use of historical data to create crime maps, locations with higher risks of offence. Whilst they may reduce on-the-fly human bias, they may automate systemic biases. For example, facial recognition techniques are less reliable for non-white individuals, specially for black women.
Historical data may reflect the over-policing certain locations whilst under-policing others. Those patterns get encoded in the algorithms, which reinforce the over- and under-policing of the same areas in the future. The abundance of data can also make postcode a proxy for ethnicity.
Technology has never been colourblind. It’s time to abolish notions of “universal” users of software. This is an overview on racial justice in tech and in AI that considers how systemic change must happen for technology to be support equity.
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This video is an in depth panel discussion of the issues uncovered in the ‘Unmasking Facial Recognition’ report from WebRootsDemocracy. This report found that facial recognition technology use is likely to exacerbate racist outcomes in policing and revealed that London’s Metropolitan Police failed to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment before trialling the technology at […]
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There’s software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it’s biased against blacks. This is an article detailing a software which is used to predict the likelihood of recurring criminality. It uses case studies to demonstrate the racial bias prevalent in the software used to predict the ‘risk’ of further crimes. Even for […]
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