Could AI demystify the slang spoken by Gen Z and Alpha?

It will be hard for AI to keep up with the changes in their meaning

- CATHERINE THORBECKE

n the breakout Netflix crime drama Adolescence, British police scramble for clues after a 13-year-old boy is accused of killing his classmate.

Scouring Instagram, investigators initially assume he and the victim were friends-until an officer's teenage son explains that the emojis under his posts are cloaked references to something more nefarious.

Now, some authorities are hoping technology can help crack this code. Australian Federal Police (AFP) are working with Microsoft to develop a prototype artificial intelligence tool that will "interpret emojis and Gen Z and Alpha slang in encrypted communications and chat groups to identify sadistic online exploitation," according to Commissioner Krissy Barrett. She said the goal was to fight back against an online ring of "crimefluencers" and make it "quicker for our teams to save children from harm much earlier."

Can AI keep pace with the warp-speed evolution of digital slang? No cap [slang for 'truthfully without exaggeration']: That's a tall order. The technology might be able to parse balance sheets, but the idea of teaching it to speak teen is giving boomer [slang for 'being out of touch with the times'].