Chinese researchers say they have achieved a world first by developing a machine capable of indicting people for crimes using artificial intelligence. The program was built and tested by the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate, the largest and most active district procuratorate in the country. She can lay a charge with over 97% accuracy from the description of a suspected criminal case.

The team allegedly built the machine from an existing artificial intelligence tool called System 206. According to a certain source, Chinese prosecutors were already using this system to assess evidence and determine whether or not an alleged criminal was dangerous to the Great. public.

However, she was quite limited since she could not participate in the decision-making process regarding the laying of charges and the suggestion of sentences. AI must be able to identify and remove irrelevant information in a case, and process human language in its neural network.

The new AI developed in Shanghai would therefore be able to assess cases in this way. In fact, the machine can identify and charge criminals for the eight most common crimes in the district: credit card fraud, gambling, dangerous driving, intentional assault, obstruction of an agent, theft, fraud and even dissent. Politics.

The new ‘attorney’ artificial intelligence has its limits, but the developers say it will only get better with more updates. So far, it has reduced the workload of district office prosecutors, giving them time to focus on more complex tasks.

Shi Yong, the machine’s senior scientist who is also the director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Big Data and Knowledge Management Laboratory, said she can “replace prosecutors in the decision-making process in a to some extent. ”

Of course, there are many concerns about the idea of ​​a powerful computer capable of sending people to prison. An anonymous prosecutor said that if his 97% accuracy rate is high enough, “there will always be a chance of error.” “Who will take responsibility when this happens? The prosecutor, the machine or the designer of the algorithm? “Said the lawyer.

Proponents, on the other hand, claim that artificial intelligence eliminates human error. The 206 system, which debuted in Shanghai in January 2019, has been praised for helping the court judge impartially. “The transcription and presentation of evidence went hand in hand with the conduct of the trial. The 206 system provided comprehensive intelligence assistance and examined the evidence comprehensively, playing an active role in the impartial judgment, ”said Wu Haiyin, deputy head of the information department of the High People’s Court of China. Shanghai, according to the state-run China Daily.