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New Report: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Law Enforcement

A new report “Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Law Enforcement” has been published by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute’s (UNICRI), Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, and Innovation Centre of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).

The report summarizes key findings, challenges and recommendations presented and discussed during the first INTERPOL - UNICRI Global Meeting on the Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Law Enforcement held in Singapore on 11-12 July 2018.

In this regard, the report analyses the contribution AI and robotics can make in policing and examines use cases at varying stages of development by national law enforcement agencies, demonstrating that the use of AI and robotics is not a future possibility, but rather a present reality.

The report further describes new threats and crimes related to the malicious use of AI and robotics, including new types of digital, physical, and political attacks, that law enforcement must be prepared to tackle. Several other challenges are highlighted alongside this, such as keeping pace with innovation, gaps in technical expertise and the fundamental importance of ensuring consistency with human rights, fairness, accountability, transparency and explainability in any use of these technologies by law enforcement.

The report concludes with a series of recommendations for the future use of AI and robotics in law enforcement, as well as specific suggestions for police chiefs.

In line with these recommendations, the second INTERPOL – UNICRI Global Meeting on Artificial Intelligence for Law Enforcement will be held on 2-4 July 2019 as part of INTERPOL World. The second edition will dive deeper into the issues raised during the first meeting, focusing on the ethically responsible integration of AI, and more specifically machine learning, into law enforcement to capture and evaluate data, and on the practical experiments and projects being implemented.

Download the report

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