Science fiction or reality? The British government plans to implant artificial intelligence chips in criminals to predict their crimes.
The British government, led by Keir Starmer, is seeking ways to reduce the prison population and improve the monitoring of offenders. At a meeting in London last month, several futuristic proposals were discussed, including chips implanted with artificial intelligence that can predict crimes, robots for transporting prisoners, and even supercomputers that analyze historical data to predict criminal behavior.
According to The Guardian, among these options is the idea of implanting subcutaneous chips that would allow real-time tracking of criminals, a move that has sparked considerable controversy due to its impact on human rights and privacy. At this meeting, Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood met with more than 20 major technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Palantir, as well as biometrics companies and private prison operators such as Serco, at a meeting organized by the Tech UK association.
Shabana Mahmood is the driving force behind the plan, calling on companies to work with the government to modernize and facilitate the monitoring of offenders. Prisons Minister James Timpson said the justice system must leverage technology to become more effective, but as expected, the proposals have raised concerns among civil rights organizations.
For example, Donald Campbell of the Foxglove Association said this kind of thinking is worrying and warned that the government could be ceding too much power to big tech companies. He also pointed out that attempts to predict crimes using artificial intelligence are unreliable and have been questioned on other occasions. In response to these views, the minister emphasized that these are merely hypothetical proposals for the time being to open a debate on how to address the prison system crisis.
However, it's worth noting that this wouldn't be the first time the British government has opted for this type of solution. Prime Minister Starmer himself said in January that artificial intelligence could transform public services. In recent reports, he has also indicated an intention to expand the use of facial recognition technology in public places to enhance security.