Police already using AI to 'predict crime'

Force's tech breakthroughs echo hit sci-fi movie 'Minority Report'

- By Paul Jeeves

POLICE chiefs are increasing their use of artificial intelligence at such a rate they could soon be able to predict and prevent crime in an echo of hit sci-fi film Minority Report.

The futuristic 2002 Steven Spielberg blockbuster, starring Tom Cruise and Samantha Morton, saw a crack police unit use psychics to enable them to stop murders before they happened.

And such has been the advancement of technology that forces are now increasingly using AI systems to process vast amounts of data in seconds and produce risk assessments.

A team at the University of Chicago last year claimed to have developed an algorithm they said would be able to predict crimes a week in advance, with 90% accuracy.