Watching the Watchers: Democratizing AI To Audit The State

Socially disadvantaged communities have often raised legitimate concerns about being over-policed and under-protected. Now, the rise of AI algorithms driving a myriad of "predictive policing" attempts has threatened to exacerbate the problem. The use of automated algorithms in policing does not do away with inequity; biases might be introduced through how such machines are trained. The black-box nature of state-of-the-art AI algorithms that do not consider the underlying social mechanics of crime, fosters little confidence that such schemes can ultimately thwart crime in any meaningful manner. To make things worse, AI algorithms are demonstrably an effective force-multiplier for the state, manifesting an evermore intrusive control and surveillance apparatus to monitor all aspects of our lives.