Argentina created a national law-enforcement department that will use AI to detect crimes as they’re committed, investigate them afterward, and predict them before they occur.
What’s new: President Javier Milei of Argentina established the Artificial Intelligence Unit Applied to Security (UIAAS), The Register reported. The unit aims to detect, investigate, and predict criminal activity by using machine learning algorithms to monitor the internet, wireless communications, security cameras, drone surveillance, financial transactions, and other data in real time.
How it works: Milei established the UIAAS in a late-July resolution. Milei created it under the Ministry of Security shortly after he reorganized the national intelligence agency to give himself more direct control. In December, his security minister quashed public protests against his austerity policies; he promised to identify protesters via “video, digital, or manual means” and bill them for the cost of policing the demonstrations.
- The UIAAS is empowered to “use machine learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data to predict future crimes and help prevent them.” This approach “will significantly improve the efficiency of the different areas of the ministry and of the federal police and security forces, allowing for faster and more precise responses to threats and emergencies,” the resolution states.
- The resolution notes that Argentina is not alone among nations in using AI for law enforcement. It cites China, France, India, Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States as “pioneers in the use of Artificial Intelligence in their areas of government and Security Forces.”
- The new unit is part of a broader cost-cutting effort that aims to replace government workers and organizations with AI systems, according to El Pais, a news outlet based in Madrid.
Behind the news: Argentina’s government is a presidential representative democratic republic. The country was ruled by a military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.
- A report by the Pulitzer Center, which sponsors independent reporting on global issues, found that, between 2019 and 2020, a face recognition network in the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires overreached its mission to track only fugitives and led to at least 140 errors that culminated in mistaken arrests or police checks. In 2022, a judge ruled the system unconstitutional and shut it down. City officials are trying to overturn the decision.
- However, Buenos Aires has used AI successfully in its criminal justice system. A rule-based system designed to prepare court opinions shortened the process of presenting evidence for consideration in a trial from 90 minutes to 1 minute and the time to process injunctions from 190 days to 42 days, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
Why it matters: AI has valuable uses in law enforcement and security. At the same time, it needs to be applied responsibly and implemented in a way that’s fair and respectful of legal rights such as presumption of innocence.
We’re thinking: Surveillance is easy to abuse, and the notion of predictive policing warrants extreme caution to avoid bias against certain groups, violating civil rights, and other pitfalls. Ensuring that it’s used well requires robust technology, rigid controls, clear oversight, and public transparency. We hope that Argentina — no less than the countries that inspired it establish a national AI police agency — will put strong safeguards in place.