President Javier Milei creates security unit as some say certain groups may be overly scrutinized by the technology

Argentina’s security forces have announced plans to use artificial intelligence to “predict future crimes” in a move experts have warned could threaten citizens’ rights.

The country’s far-right president Javier Milei this week created the Artificial Intelligence Applied to Security Unit, which the legislation says will use “machine-learning algorithms to analyse historical crime data to predict future crimes”. It is also expected to deploy facial recognition software to identify “wanted persons”, patrol social media, and analyse real-time security camera footage to detect suspicious activities.

While the ministry of security has said the new unit will help to “detect potential threats, identify movements of criminal groups or anticipate disturbances”, the Minority Report-esque resolution has sent alarm bells ringing among human rights organisations.

  • Deestan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1801·
    5 months ago

    Tech guy here.

    This is a tech-flavored smokescreen to avoid responsibility for misapplied law enforcement.

    • Johnmannesca@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      5 months ago

      By innate definition, everyone has the potential for criminality, especially those applying and enforcing the law; as a matter of fact, not even the ai is above the law unless that’s somehow changing. We need a lot of things on Earth first, like an IoT consortium for example, but an ai bill of rights in the US or EU should hopefully set a precedent for the rest of the world.

      • Deestan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        5 months ago

        The AI is a pile of applied stastistic models. The humans in charge of training it, testing it and acting on its input have full control and responsibility for anything that comes out of it. Personifying or otherwise separating an AI system from being the will of its controllers is dangerous as it erodes responsibility.

        Racist cops have used “I go where the crime is” as an exuse to basically hunt minorities for sport. Do not allow them to say “the AI model said this was efficient” and pretend it is not their own full and knowing bias directing them.

      • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
        31·
        5 months ago

        That’s not even the problem here… AI, big data, a consultant - it’s all just an excuse to point to when they do what they wanted to do anyways, profile “criminals” and harass them

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      26·
      5 months ago

      “Anarchocapitalist”

      And honestly, even that’s bullshit. You can’t be anarchocapitalist and a social conservative.

      • pyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        5 months ago

        lol what. I’ve never seen any ancap who isn’t fascist by another name. all capitalists are conservatives.

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        5 months ago

        Yeah but a lot of “anarcho” capitalists claim to be just another type of anarchist. This is the point I’m making, which is that they are very much not real anarchists.

        Since it’s a shallow ideology with no strong moral principles, it’s not surprising that its adherents hold contradictory viewpoints like social conservatism.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          16·
          5 months ago

          Normal anarchism seems just about as coherent to me, TBH. In both cases they rely on a mythical hard-power vacuum that doesn’t instantly collapse.

          • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
            5·
            5 months ago

            Depends on the strain. Whether it’s possible in large scale society is an open question but social anarchists at least propose credible ideas. Basically there would still be structures and organizations for managing society, they would just be non-hierarchical and democratic. These structures would have to be carefully designed to be able to maintain themselves without devolving into a state, but also be organized and strong enough to withstand external takeover.

            Only one way to find out if it will work. But Rojava and Zapatistas have been doing similar things for some years now with moderate success.

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
              24·
              5 months ago

              And that’s about as detailed as the plans ever get. How exactly are the non-hierarchical democratic councils laid out, and how are they any different from normal representative government/state? At best anarchists describe representative democracy with generous recall rules, at worst I actually have heard “all rules are repressive, there will be no rules, no further explanation will be provided”. And that’s not even getting into the economic questions, if this is going to be a non-market system.

              Only one way to find out if it will work.

              I’ve seen pretty much the same argument from ancaps about their self-contained Gordian knot of contracts that never collapses. It’s true, weird ideas that sound impractical work sometimes, so I can’t prove it wouldn’t, but I’m not holding my breath.

              As for those couple examples, I suspect they work in a very different way from the theory, although again I can’t prove it. Republican Spain never really approached the Anarchist ideal, at least, and that’s the one there’s good information on.

              • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
                1·
                5 months ago

                The fact that I am not an expert in the exact structures a hypothetical anarchist society could take doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Furthermore, as you allude to, their implementation in the real world would likely differ from any theoretical structure based on the experience and practical needs of the people involved. There are people building such organizations as we speak, and hopefully, as they gain experience, we can collectively learn which structures work and which ones do not.

                In general I see anarchism as more of an aspirational process. The goals are to achieve human liberation to the maximum extent possible. Maybe it’s not possible to achieve complete global liberation (and I agree not to the extent that some individualist anarchists believe, i.e. the no rules people) but there’s good reason to believe it can be achieved to a much greater extent than current societies. I think that’s worth working towards, and even if we did achieve a more liberated society like Republican Spain, that process wouldn’t end there. We would keep iterating and tinkering to find the best and most free society we can reasonably attain.

                • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
                  2·
                  5 months ago

                  I can certainly agree with all of that, even if we disagree on whether present liberal democracies are kinda far, or totally far from the ideal.

      • ours@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        Anarchy: yet another term hijacked by fascists and mangled beyond recognition.

        It’s just extreme economic liberalism, small/no Government so that corporations can rule over us as warlords. It’s a smokescreen for corporate feudalism.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          As far as I can tell, ancaps are a tiny group of economics nerds that don’t see the obvious flaw everyone else does. They legitimately do think we can have a comfortable, livable society where you never have to do anything you don’t agree to, in their specific sense of positive agreement.

          Actual fascists go for more convincing canards.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      211·
      5 months ago

      He’s a liberal libertarian! That’s what he’s been saying after consulting his *checks notes* cloned dog.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    42·
    5 months ago

    Would you believe it, all those political enemies and protesters turned out to be future criminals?

    How fortunate we developed this system!

  • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    5 months ago

    That’s already tried. In the end the AI is just an electronic version of existing police biases.

    Police files more reports and arrests in poor neighborhoods because they patrol more there. Reports get used as training data and AI predicts more crime in poor areas. Those areas now get over patrolled and the tension leads to more crime. The system is celebrated for being correct.

    • Tryptaminev@lemm.eeEnglish
      91·
      5 months ago

      You make it sound like a bug instead of a feature. But for the capitalist ruling class it is working exactly as intended.

    • TheFrirish@jlai.luEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      To be fair with Argentina the circus has been going on for ages now and this one is a new figurant of the show.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    191·
    5 months ago

    Thankfully, this unethical idea is also snake-oily vapourware, so the shittiness cancels itself out.

    • ours@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      And that one could actually see the future and not just go on calculate biased statistics.

    • Saledovil@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      It’s like, in “Minority Report”, some of these crimes weren’t even premediated crimes, for example the crime they stop at the beginning. The guy was about to stab his wife because he found out she’s been cheating on him. Chances are if given time to process his feelings, he wouldn’t have done it.