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ttttChinese scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (A.I.) system that can examine u201cevidenceu201d and charge people with u201ccrimes,u201d as defined by Chinau2019s totalitarian parody of a Western justice system.
The developers claim the A.I. prosecutor is over 97 percent accurate when it files charges.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Sunday reported the system was u201cbuilt and tested by the Shanghai Pudong Peopleu2019s Procuratorate, the countryu2019s largest and busiest district prosecution office.u201d
The project was managed by the u201cbig data and knowledge management laboratoryu201d at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which predicted the robo-prosecutor would reduce the workload of human prosecutors by handling routine cases, allowing them to u201cfocus on more difficult tasks.u201d
Chinese prosecutors already employ a data processing tool called u201cSystem 206u201d that helps them u201cevaluate the strength of evidence, conditions for an arrest and how dangerous a suspect is considered to be to the public,u201d SCMP noted.
Meishan Intermediate Peopleu2019s Court (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
According to Chinese Academy of Sciences development team leader Shi Yong, the new A.I. system can go a step further by making decisions based on its data and filing charges automatically, without human intervention:
The AI prosecutor developed by Shiu2019s team could run on a desktop computer. For each suspect, it would press a charge based on 1,000 u201ctraitsu201d obtained from the human-generated case description text, most of which are too small or abstract to make sense to humans. System 206 would then assess the evidence.
The machine was u201ctrainedu201d using more than 17,000 cases from 2015 to 2020. So far, it can identify and press charges for Shanghaiu2019s eight most common crimes.
They are credit card fraud, running a gambling operation, dangerous driving, intentional injury, obstructing official duties, theft, fraud and u201cpicking quarrels and provoking troubleu201d u2013 a catch-all charge often used to stifle dissent.
It does not exactly take state-of-the-art processing power to charge hapless Chinese dissidents with u201cpicking quarrels and provoking trouble,u201d a u201ccrimeu201d that requires very little in the way of evidence and almost nothing that would be recognized as due process by citizens of the free world. It is not difficult to see how an A.I. system could go overboard charging political dissidents with u201cobstructing official duties.u201d
The robo-prosecutor seems like the next logical step in Chinau2019s tyrannical u201csocial credit system,u201d already capable of detecting dissident behavior and punishing citizens in various ways with minimal human oversight.
Security guards patrol below surveillance cameras on a corner of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 6, 2019. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
While Shi burbled happily about the A.I. system growing even more powerful and auto-filing charges for ever more complex offenses, an unnamed Chinese prosecutor told the SCMP he was worried about prosecutors losing what little autonomy and responsibility they have.
u201cThe accuracy of 97 per cent may be high from a technological point of view, but there will always be a chance of a mistake. Who will take responsibility when it happens? The prosecutor, the machine or the designer of the algorithm?u201d the anonymous critic asked.
u201cA.I. may help detect a mistake, but it cannot replace humans in making a decision,u201d he insisted.
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