Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool.

In the hands of public police and other criminal justice agencies, AI can lead to injustice. For example, Detroit resident Robert Williams was arrested in front of his children and held in detention for a night after a false positive in an AI facial recognition system. Williams had his name in the system for years and had to sue the police and local government for wrongful arrest to get it removed. He eventually found out that faulty AI had identified him as the suspect.

Around the corner, the same thing happened to another Detroit resident, Michael Oliver, and in New Jersey, to Nijeer Parks. These three men have two things in common. One, they are all victims of false positives in AI facial recognition systems. And two, they are all Black men.

It turns out: AI facial recognition systems cannot tell most people of colour apart. According to one study, the error rate is the highest for Black women, at 35 per cent.

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