China creates AI prosecutor that can charge citizens with crimes

China's love for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has now resulted in a smart prosecutor bot that can press charges on criminal behavior with up to 97-percent accuracy. The AI prosecutor was developed by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' big data and knowledge management lab headed by Professor Shi Yong – who claims that the machine can determine a crime and file a charge solely based on a verbal description of what happened. The AI program currently runs on a desktop computer, and was developed to its current state after the team trained it between 2015 and 2020 using over 17,000 different criminal cases. Currently, the bot can charge suspects using 1,000 different "traits" derived from human-described case documentations, and can be used to charge some of Shanghai's most common felonies – including fraud, credit card fraud, theft, intentional harm, dangerous driving, obstructions of justice, running illegal gambling operations, and provoking trouble. While this sounds pretty revolutionary overall, it isn't the first time China has used AI in its justice system.