‘Forensic Sketch AI-rtist’ Creates Ultra-Realistic Headshots Of Suspected Perps

Forensic sketch artists have provided an invaluable service to Lady Justice in catching criminals based on eyewitness reports. With the rise of artificial intelligence, though, could their jobs be in jeopardy too?
 
‘Forensic Sketch AI-rtist’ is a new in-the-works project by EagleAI that uses the same model as DALL-E to take in specific prompts and churn out photorealistic images of suspects.
 
As suggested in the project’s demonstration, you would need to fill in details such as gender, age, skin color, and hair to create a profile. There are also options to put in further information for the eyebrows, eyes, nose, jaw, and beard. Finally, users can provide a text description to highlight any finer details.
 
That might seem like a more time-saving option for police departments to type a description and get an image. However, the faults in this system might prevail if it takes off. 
 
Wherever AI, gender, and ethnicity are involved with each other, biases abound. And as it stands, certain marginalized groups already have to deal with prejudices in the real world, let alone the digital one.
 
According to Vice, Jennifer Lynch, Surveillance Litigation Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that traditional sketch work is already subjected to its own limitations, including real-world biases and the feebleness of human memory.
 
Minorities are often stopped and questioned more than other groups, not just in the US but worldwide as well. A previous instance of AI aiding the police force resulted in a man being jailed for a crime he did not commit.
 
There is no denying that AI can aid society in several ways, but until humans can solve the prejudices we hold, we cannot expect AI not to portray the same. After all, it is humans who program and create such systems.
 
 
 
[via DIY Photography and PetaPixel, screenshot via EagleAI]