AI tool promises to help UK police solve cold cases in just 30 hours

In the UK, there is an artificial intelligence tool that can solve the most notorious cold cases in the country, in just 30 hours, using detective work which a human may accomplish in 81 years.

The Avon and Somerset Police is responsible for the safety of South West of England, and they are testing an AI tool said to help in looking through evidence and leads that might have been missed while doing manual checking.

The Soze tool, which was developed in Australia, can go through video footage, financial transactions, social media, emails and other documents simultaneously. 

It has managed to review the evidential material in 27 complex cases in just 30 hours, whereas human detectives would have to work on it for over 81 years.

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The chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Gavin Stephens, shared how this tool could contribute a lot in closing the most notorious and cold cases in the UK.

“I could imagine this sort of thing being really useful for cold case reviews,” he told reporters.

“You might have a cold case review that just looks impossible because of the amount of material there and feed it into a system like this which can just ingest it, then give you an assessment of it. I can see that being really, really helpful.”

The Soze tool is said to be one of “dozens of ground-breaking programs” which could soon be rolled out across the UK.

Another example listed was an AI tool to build a national database of knives, ‘which could be used to put pressure on retailers, and a system that allows call handlers to focus their attention on speaking to domestic abuse victims.’ as said from the reports of Sky News.

“If all of those 64 examples were adopted all across England and Wales and had similar gains to those of the forces using them, we’d get something like 15 million hours of productivity back to spend on things like investigations or responding to emergencies, which equates to more than £350m in costs,” Stephens.

It was clarified that the AI tools along with facial recognition are “not a replacement” for police, since there will be an officer “involved in the final decisions.”

“This isn’t handing over our responsibilities to technology but what the technology is helping us to do better,” said the Chief Constable.

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