Argentina is planning to incorporate AI into its police force and use it to predict and prevent crimes before they happen.
Human rights advocates have kicked against this plan over complaints of mass surveillance and misuse of private information.
Further worsening the matter, Argentina also has a dark history of state repression, including the disappearance of some 30,000 people between 1976 and 1983.
Artificial Intelligence has many applications beyond mere image generation, as we have seen with mid-journey or text generation and chat-based tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Bing Chat.
AI is now being used in other areas like healthcare and financial analysis, with some companies already talking about implementing AI judges and Lawyers.
One of the most recent (and controversial applications) of AI in recent times, however, is with Policing.
Would AIs make good police and law enforcement agents, and would it be good to use them as such?
In what appears to be another major leap in AI use, Argentina's government recently announced plans to use AI in its fight against crime by applying it to "predict and prevent" crimes before they occur.
According to recent reports, Argentina's Javier Milei has just approved the application of AIs to its Security Unit.
According to this new bill, this unit will use neural networks and machine learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data to predict crimes long before they happen.
The AI system is also expected to feature additional applications, such as facial recognition, to identify known criminals and wanted individuals and even patrol social media and the country's streets through cameras to detect suspicious activity.
However, judging by the backlash this bill is facing, human rights advocates don’t seem too happy about it.
For example, while the application of AI to crime fighting is noble enough, experts warn that it might give room for the over-surveillance of particular groups of people.
Advocates have also expressed concerns about how the information these AIs collect will be used.
Software Engineer Grady Brooch, for example, commented simply, "This will not end well."
Argentina and AI
Others like David Arnal, another computer engineer, stated: “Is this a necessary step or a slippery slope towards mass surveillance?”
Similarly, the Argentine Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information also pointed out that such technologies have historically been used for all the wrong reasons and that without proper regulation, they pose a major threat to privacy and freedom of expression.
Argentina’s history of state repression is also not helping matters.
For example, during the dictatorship era between 1976 and 1983, around 30,000 mysteriously disappeared, with thousands tortured and hundreds of children kidnapped.
Furthermore, this ongoing controversy in Argentina is part of a worldwide approach to the role of AI in society.
This is also amid an ongoing investigation by the US government into OpenAI to better understand its inner workings.
Furthermore, the United Nations General Assembly is also conducting an AI investigation, a move initiated by the US and backed by more than a hundred other countries.
Overall, the plan to use AI in policing might have its positive arguments.
However, it remains unwelcome in the international community if privacy, human rights and a possible AI dictatorship are the price to pay.
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