Argentina's president wants to predict crime using AI algorithms

Alfonso Maruccia · 2024-08-02T13:57:00-0400

A hot potato: Could a film like Minority Report become reality with the latest AI technology? Javier Milei's flamboyant government appears willing to experiment and see if algorithmic precognition can become a tool for criminal investigations in Argentina.

Milei's administration recently established a new artificial intelligence unit, UIAAS, to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute criminals using AI algorithms. According to the law, UIAAS personnel will "patrol" open social networks, applications, websites, and even the Dark Web to identify crime perpetrators and detect potentially unlawful activities.

The Argentine government notes that AI is already being used by several countries, including the US, China, the UK, Israel, France, and others. These nations are reportedly exploiting machine learning (ML) algorithms and neural networks for video analysis, facial recognition, virtual assistance, automation, security, robotics, and more.

Officials have explicitly mentioned "crime prediction," utilizing powerful ML networks to analyze historical data in order to prevent future crimes. UIAAS is also expected to deploy biometric software for facial recognition, making it easier to identify "wanted" individuals through social media and CCTV-derived video footage.

Crime precognition became a major sci-fi trope after Steven Spielberg adapted a story by Philip K. Dick into the blockbuster film Minority Report in 2002. The latest advancements in machine learning technology have provided a semblance of human interaction through chatbots and generative AI services, which adds fuel to the idea that future crimes can be anticipated if there is enough historical data to analyze.

Human rights organizations have criticized Milei's latest "shock" measure as a potential disaster for freedom of expression and civil rights. Amnesty International stated that UIAAS represents a large-scale surveillance effort that could make people hesitant to share their ideas online, as they could easily be targeted by the new unit's scanning software.

Additionally, the Argentine Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information highlighted how these "prediction" technologies have been used in the past to build profiles on academics, journalists, politicians, and activists. Argentina has a particularly dark history of repression under military dictatorships, with tens of thousands of people kidnapped, tortured, and killed during the 1970s and 1980s. The events surrounding the Desaparecidos do not bode well for UIAAS activities, but Milei seems likely to proceed with the new AI unit regardless.

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Argentina's president wants to predict crime using AI algorithms

wiyosaya · 2024-08-02T14:12:26-0400

A psychic would do better than AI, IMO.

This is ripe for abuse.

Dimitriid · 2024-08-02T14:38:39-0400

Hopefully they'll do plenty of dry-runs because the moment it goes live it will probably issue arrest warrants for most of his fascist staff if not him personally.

human7 · 2024-08-02T15:04:28-0400

As long there are safeguards such that the use of ML to predict crime does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy, humans review all positive hits to ensure there are no false positives, and there is no greater automated surveillance/decision making on any type of crime, person, device, or location than would generally occur anyways (that is, no bypassing of what would normally require a warrant or a human cop to catch to call a crime) I generally don't have an issue with the use of ML in law enforcement.

Practically, these things are abused all the time, so I'm not optimistic that abuses won't happen.

Endymio · 2024-08-02T16:29:41-0400

Dimitriid said:
Hopefully they'll do plenty of dry-runs because the moment it goes live it will probably issue arrest warrants for most of his fascist staff if not him personally.

You're confused. Fascism has always been a Leftist political doctrine. Mussolini was a socialist writer before founding his party with the "fasci": Italian far-Left unionists. And Hitler's Party wasn't called National Socialism for nothing. They advocated -- and enacted -- high taxes on the wealthy, strong labor unions, a high minimum wage and expanded social safety net, draconian regulation of corporations for "the common good", laws against "unfair profits", expanded access to abortion, free higher education for college students, and -- most of all -- a slavish desire to categorize people by race, not as individuals.

The rise of National Socialism was cheered by Leftists in the US and Europe -- it wasn't until their atrocities came to light that the Left began attempting to rewrite history to call it "right wing", despite it sharing literally nothing in common politically.

Thanthan · 2024-08-02T19:34:57-0400

Endymio said:
You're confused. Fascism has always been a Leftist political doctrine. Mussolini was a socialist writer before founding his party with the "fasci": Italian far-Left unionists. And Hitler's Party wasn't called National Socialism for nothing. They advocated -- and enacted -- high taxes on the wealthy, strong labor unions, a high minimum wage and expanded social safety net, draconian regulation of corporations for "the common good", laws against "unfair profits", expanded access to abortion, free higher education for college students, and -- most of all -- a slavish desire to categorize people by race, not as individuals.

The rise of National Socialism was cheered by Leftists in the US and Europe -- it wasn't until their atrocities came to light that the Left began attempting to rewrite history to call it "right wing", despite it sharing literally nothing in common politically.

This is just plain bullshit from someone who has no clue or is acting in bad faith. Do you know who were the biggest enemies politically of the nationalist socialists? The social democrats and the communists. They bloody hated each other. The communists were literally the other party in the Spanish civil war between the fascists and the communists… now tell me again that the left ‘loved’ national socialism. The world is more nuanced than ‘right’ and ‘left’, but no one in what we today describe as the political left in EU or the US would support the policies enacted by fascists in the thirties and forties. Meanwhile plenty of policies advocated for by nationalists, who are primarily right leaning (though that depends on your definition of the ‘right’, as free market fundamentalists certainly aren’t fascists) do support said policies and use the same rhetoric.

Oh I forgot to add; my local conservative party’s youth division wrote songs praising hitler in the thirties, and the Conservative Party chairman praised hitler and nazi germany outright. And let’s just say they weren’t very left wing in any sense of the word.

Argentina's president wants to predict crime using AI algorithms

Alfonso Maruccia

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A hot potato: Could a film like Minority Report become reality with the latest AI technology? Javier Milei's flamboyant government appears willing to experiment and see if algorithmic precognition can become a tool for criminal investigations in Argentina.

wiyosaya

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Dimitriid

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