Scientists from the University of Chicago have developed a new algorithm that they claim can predict future crimes one week in advance with about 90 per cent accuracy.
The AI, which has been taught to identify patterns in time and geographic locations using public data on violent and property crimes in the city of Chicago from 2014 to the end of 2016, was able to accurately predict crime levels several weeks in advance. The model was also trained and tested on data for seven other major US cities, with a similar level of performance.
However, the AI's conclusions also suggested the existence of bias in police responses across the city, associated with race.
According to the research, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, crime in wealthier areas of Chicago resulted in more arrests than in poor neighbourhoods.
“What we’re seeing is that when you stress the system, it requires more resources to arrest more people in response to crime in...