Police sketches can be helpful in tracking down suspects or persons of interest – if they’re good.
Sometimes the witness got it wrong, or the sketch is too generic to really pin down what one specific person might look like.
This time, it was AI completing the sketch, and the internet is absolutely losing their minds at the results.
Police were searching for a man who broke into the home of a 90 year-old in England. The Kent police released a composite photo of the suspect, sharing the “computer generated image” on social media.
Investigators have released a computer generated image of a man they would like to identify in connection with a burglary in Tunbridge Wells. https://t.co/hPrbjaLeyU pic.twitter.com/D35VA8TfQd
— Kent Police TWells (@KentPoliceTWell) April 29, 2024
The results were funny, but the ensuing comments were comedy gold.
“Did he burglarize the Wii bowling alley?” one asked.
did he burglarize the Wii bowling alley https://t.co/cgzY8QSxTR
— Matt Margolis (@ItsMattsLaw) April 29, 2024
“He’s hiding in the Facility level in GoldenEye,” added another.
He’s hiding in the Facility level in GoldenEye https://t.co/R1Cm5bGvlg
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) April 29, 2024
The police said a witness heard the intruder upstairs after she returned home around 5pm. She confronted him and he left without incident.
She described the suspect as being white, around 5.5 inches tall with an average build and short dark hair.
If you just look at the image, he might also be straight out of a Playstation console, or as some pointed out, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
They trapped Pete Buttigieg in a PS1 game and he’s broken free. Tortured by the humanity he can never regain, he is now roaming the streets, lashing out at a society he can never reenter. https://t.co/FOVUxvdYpS
— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) April 29, 2024
You never know.
Funny though this sketch may be, the truth is that police everywhere are exploring the use of AI to generate suspect sketches.
This has raised concerns about how it might continue or even exacerbate the problems of bias and racial profiling.
Other departments are also considering using DNA phenotyping to generate suspect photos, which seems pretty out there to me, and would not enable police to include specific details like scars, tattoos, etc.
The future is coming.
Whether we like it or not.
If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.