Home Office to fund use of AI to help catch dark web paedophiles

Artificial intelligence could be used to help catch paedophiles operating on the dark web, the Home Office has announced. The government has pledged to spend more money on the child abuse image database, which since 2014 has allowed police and other law enforcement agencies to search seized computers and other devices for indecent images of children quickly, against a record of 14m images, to help identify victims. The investment will be used to trial aspects of AI including voice analysis and age estimation to see whether they would help track down child abusers. Earlier this month, the chancellor, Sajid Javid, announced £30m would be set aside to tackle online child sexual exploitation, with the Home Office releasing more information on how this would be spent on Tuesday. There has been debate over the use of machine learning algorithms, part of the broad field of AI, with the government's Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation developing a code of practice for the trialling of the predictive analytical technology in policing.