AI can detect 90% of crimes before they happen

Question

An article by Jack Dunhill a Social Media Coordinator and Staff Writer for IFL Science, posted an article claiming that a "new" type of AI was able to detect 90% of crimes before they happen. The title of the article and claim happen to be misleading, essentially the AI doesn't detect crimes before they happen but uses data from past crimes in a 1,000-square-foot area of Chicago to predict when and where crimes are more likely to occur based on previous criminal data. Additionally, the "90% accuracy" they mention refers only to how well the AI predicts general crime hotspots and not exact events. The article also leaves out the important limitation of the fact that not all crimes are reported, which can affect the accuracy of its 90% prediction rate. So therefore, this AI doesn't detect crimes before they happen but instead predicts the likelihood of crimes occurring, giving police and other first responders a head start in responding to potential crime rather than stopping specific crimes before they occur.

Answer 1

This claim has been proven to be true by some sources, but it takes a lot for this to be true. Finding that AI can detect crime before it happens have been conducted and proved effective but it is still difficult to tell the future, even for AI.

https://biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/algorithm-predicts-crime-police-bias

Answer 2

“AI can detect 90% of crime before it happens" is a very misleading claim after you look at the original source published by IFL Science. According to the article, AI can be used to "predict crimes before they happen". However, looking into the research cited in the paper and was published in Nature Human Behaviour, you can understand that the AI model predicts patterns based on data from previous crimes committed in a specific geographic area. 

The University of Chicago describes how the algorithm functions. It is based on information about the time and place of a crime's occurrence, you can use it to estimate that some places will have some crimes committed in the near future.

You can find more information regarding the limitations of the algorithm in the original article as well. For example, it is mentioned that "AI doesn't tell you who is going to commit the event". The algorithm can only show what is likely to happen in a very specific location.

As a whole, the statement is incorrect. It should be remembered that the AI system does not predict specific crimes at all, it only detects that there is a pattern of crime in a location, and can only be done with statistical terms. Regarding the “90% accuracy,” it exists, but only in relation to pattern detection.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01372-0?utm

https://biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/algorithm-predicts-crime-police-bias

Answer 3

I think this article is really kinda misleading. It talks about AI being used in multiple US cities and says it has over 80% accuracy in predicting crimes, but that’s not really the full story. It’s not actually a new AI it is just using an algorithm that looks at past crime data in specific high crime areas to predict the chances of something happening there again. The problem is it is only focused on small areas where crime is already common, so of course the accuracy looks high, but that doesn’t mean it works the same everywhere.

Answer 4

This claim is overall misleading as AI does not actually detect crimes before they happen, but instead predicts where crimes are more likely based on data. The IFLScience article https://www.iflscience.com/ai-predicts-90-percent-of-crime-before-it-happens-creator-argues-it-wont-be-misused-6502 makes it sound like AI can stop crimes before they happen, but it actually just uses past crime data to predict where crime is more likely. The “90% accuracy” only refers to guessing general areas, not specific crimes. This means the AI cannot truly predict the future, only patterns. The article may be biased because the title is very attention-grabbing and exaggerates the results. The evidence supporting the claim is that the AI can find patterns in crime locations. The evidence against it is that not all crimes are reported and it cannot predict exact events. Overall, the AI helps police focus on higher-risk areas, but it does not detect crimes before they happen.

Answer 5

In investigation of the topic that a new AI has been made that can detect 90% of crimes before they even happen, I found that the claim was in fact correct. After reading articles by the BBC and also IFL science. 

In the BBC article that I read, I learned that “The model doesn’t predict who will commit a crime, but rather identifies patterns in where and when crimes are likely to occur". This article supports the idea that newer AI systems can predict crime patterns with up to 90% accuracy by analyzing past data, showing how technology is shifting toward anticipating crime before it happens rather than just reacting to it.

In the IFL science article that I read, I learned that researchers developed an AI system that analyzes crime data to predict where and when crimes are likely to happen up to a week in advance with about 90% accuracy, showing how AI can be used to anticipate crime patterns before they occur rather than only responding after the fact. 

Predictive crime AI can be biased because it learns from past police data, which may already focus more on certain neighborhoods, making them seem more “criminal” than they really are. This can create a cycle where those areas keep getting more police attention, which keeps reinforcing the same prediction.

Answer 6

In investigation of the topic that a new AI has been made that can detect 90% of crimes before they even happen, I found that the claim was in fact correct. After reading articles by the BBC and also IFL science I learned that it may be a bit exagerrated though.

In the article written by the BBC, the following statement was made: "The model doesn’t predict who will commit a crime, but rather identifies patterns in where and when crimes are likely to occur". This article clearly shows that new AI models predict crime patterns up to 90% accurately. This proves that technology now tends to predict and anticipate crimes based on analysis of previous events.

In the article published on IFL Science website, the authors state the following: "Researchers have designed an AI-based model capable of predicting when and where crimes might take place up to one week in advance with 90% accuracy". Thus, we see that new AI systems have become able to anticipate crime patterns.

Bias is quite possible in case of AI for predicting crimes because the algorithm of such AI is based on the analysis of previous crime patterns. As police tend to patrol certain places due to the increased amount of crime incidents, certain areas can look "criminal" in reality, and AI models can continue learning from those predictions.