Minority Report Is Here--Pre-Crime AI Surveillance Tech Will Study "Behavioral Anomalies"

Nary a month goes by that I don't see an article somewhere pronouncing that Minority Report is coming to life--that pre-crime policing is here. Usually, when you drill further into it you find that a company is simply creating software capable of such technology, without necessarily the intent to use it. This time around, though, it sounds like we're actually going to see a working prototype of pre-crime technology deployed in a city. And with it comes new anxiety over surveillance and privacy.

Cortica, an Israeli AI research company, is partnering with the India-based Best Group to analyze “behavioral anomalies” on CCTV footage to anticipate criminal activity. The underlying technology is the same that governments use to spot terrorists, a highly sophisticated system that can identify micro-expressions. This is the kind of technology that will eventually replace human detectives with AI.

Cortica is not using a neural network, but rather a transparent approach that will make it easier to monitor the AI's decisions. They plan to use such technology in robotaxis to prevent sexual assaults. However, there is still anxiety over how such a tool could be used in the future by more nefarious agents.

AI pre-crime tech is likely to face enhanced scrutiny in the current sociopolitical landscape in which citizens are increasingly wary over surveillance.