The United Kingdom is developing an algorithm that predicts individuals who are at risk of becoming murderers. In a report by The Guardian, the project was discovered by Statewatch after applying for access to government projects under the freedom of data access. Originally, the project was called the “murder prediction project” before being changed to “data sharing for risk assessment”.
Through this project, data on crimes committed by individuals will be used by algorithms to assess their risk of committing violent crimes. The project was initiated by the Prime Minister’s Department under the direction of Rishi Sunak. The use of the data is to explore alternative and innovative data science techniques to assess the risk of murder and thus reduce crime in the UK.
Although the purpose of the project is for the safety of the people, Statewatch sees it as a risk that the government is collecting people’s data for a scary project like the TV series Person of Interest. The only difference is that in this TV series, the artificial intelligence (AI) The Machine uses the collected data to save the lives of individuals who are predicted to be at risk of becoming victims of crime. Who would have thought that science fiction from 2011 is now closer to reality.