Forensic Sketch AI-rtist

2023: Start using the neural network

A new program has been developed to generate super-realistic photobots that law enforcement agencies can use to capture criminals. The creation of a system called Forensic Sketch AI-rtist became known in early February 2023.

The program is based on the generative AI model OpenAI DALL-E 2. The system was created as part of a hackathon in December 2022 by researchers Arthur Fortunato and Filipe Reynaud. The goal of the project is to reduce the time it takes the police to create a photobot of the suspect (usually two to three hours).

US police start using neural network to generate criminals' photobots

The program offers two ways to form a photobot. One of them provides for entering information through a special template containing fields such as the sex of the suspect, skin color, shape of the eyebrows and nose, age, hair and eye color, the presence of a beard/mustache, etc. The second option is a free description that allows you to enter any text. After receiving the initial data, the program will create a realistic portrait of the criminal.

However, ethicists and neural network experts say the use of generative AI in police forensics is extremely dangerous and could exacerbate existing racial and gender biases. In addition, the accuracy of such sketches will depend on the peculiarities of the work of human memory.

Research has shown that people remember faces holistically, not by traits. The process of forming a sketch based on descriptions of individual features, as in this artificial intelligence program, can lead to the fact that the face will be strikingly different from the true face of the criminal, "said Jennifer Lynch, director of litigation at the Electronic Frontier Foundation[1]

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