AI Software Tells Cops to Arrest the Wrong Guy

Imagine you go into a business and their AI surveillance camera thinks it recognizes you as a trespasser. So that business handcuffs you and calls the cops. The cops arrive. You show them your Real ID. But they don’t believe it. Instead, they believe the AI. Crazy, right? 

This happened. On September 17, 2023, the Peppermill Casino in Reno telephoned the Reno Police Department to report that a man we’ll refer to by his initials - M.E., a trespasser, had unlawfully returned to the casino. The casino reported that their A.I. facial recognition software positively identified the man as M.E., a man they had barred from the casino months earlier for sleeping on the premises. But the Peppermill’s AI software was wrong. They had the wrong guy.