San Francisco Will Use AI To Thwart Racial Bias When Charging Suspects

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, left, announces a new AI tool that will curb racial biases when deciding criminal charges, alongside Alex Chohlas-Wood, right, who helped develop the tool.ASSOCIATED PRESS San Francisco says it will start using an artificial intelligence tool to reduce possible racial bias among prosecutors reviewing police reports, a "first-in-the-nation" use of a technology whose applications have been criticized for compounding bias. On Wednesday, District Attorney George Gascón announced that the city on July 1 would begin to use a "bias mitigation tool" that automatically redacts anything on the police report that might be suggestive of race, from hair color to zip code. Information about the police officer, such as badge number, will also be hidden. Currently, the district attorney's office manually removes the first few pages of the report, but if any race details are in the narrative--the section where the police officer describes the crime--prosecutors can see them. "This technology will reduce the threat that implicit bias poses to the purity of decisions which have serious ramifications for the accused, and that will help make our system of justice more fair and just," Gascón said.