Staff Reports
Portland has found a way to handle the city's non-emergency phone lines: an artificial intelligence (AI) system. This is because record numbers of police officers are leaving the force. Even though it's only used for a few hours a day to try and improve it, there's a worrying trend that technology will soon take over all of the emergency services. The heavy cuts to Portland's police budget, which share responsibility for 911 calls, are making the force stressed and understaffed, so non-emergency calls don't get as much attention.
A.I. Robot Will Be Answering Police Phone Lines in Portland
https://t.co/O2rSrhNFNV— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 23, 2023
Portland has a lot of crime, so it's not surprising that AI is being used there. The city is run by Democrats, and it's a hotbed for far-left violence carried out by "defund the police" militants. Predictive policing and facial recognition technologies, which are used to build profiles of suspects, raise privacy issues and are 10 to 100 times more likely to misidentify black and Asian faces than white faces.
If you tell the new robot agents that you need medical help right away, AI will follow you to the hospital. Even nurses with special training who can alter the software have to follow the AI model, and if they're wrong, they could get in trouble. The Wall Street Journal showed that being forced to use AI can make people feel bad about themselves when doing the "right thing" is the only choice.
AI in the classroom also affects students and teachers who have to deal with problems like academic dishonesty and where AI should and should not step in. Reports of students cheating on written assignments with AI keep going up. For example, 43 percent of college students use chatbots and other AI tools to help them finish their assignments or tests. Also, AI-powered educational technology policies aren't always right, which could lead to crime being blamed on innocent students.
Is this where emergency services are going? AI seems to be the answer to a problem that will happen if the police budget is cut: a workforce that is stressed and understaffed. Portland isn't the only city struggling with this, and it's only a matter of time before AI takes over all emergency services, leaving the public to only believe algorithms.
