Minority Report-style crime prevention with artificial intelligence is fast becoming reality
- Improvements in detection technology have all but solved credit card fraud and spam email
- Security agencies are deploying AI to detect abnormal behaviour that may suggest malicious intent
In the 1956 short story The Minority Report by American writer Philip K Dick, three “precogs” foresee all crime, allowing members of a special “pre-crime” squad to pick up suspects before the crime is committed.
Sixty-three years and a Steven Spielberg film later, the line between science fiction and reality is blurring fast, according to Nimrod Kozlovski, whose many hats include law professor, law partner, venture capitalist and cybersecurity consultant.
“Minority Report is becoming a reality and much faster than we thought,” said Kozlovski in a group interview last month in the wood-panelled offices of law firm Herzog, Fox & Ne’eman in Tel Aviv, where he is a partner and senior adviser on internet law and cybersecurity.
“I was fascinated with this idea whether one day we will have the technology to be able to actually predict the crime before it happens, rather than we react to the crime after it happens,” he said.
“Today, we’re actually using technology that can detect anomalies and can sense patterns of abnormal behaviour, and we are able to profile people that are likely to perpetrate crime.”
