This calendar month the Canadian government is launching a pilot platform to research and foretell suicide rate in the country using artificial intelligence activity . The buffer will mine Canadians ’ social medium posts “ in decree to identify shape consociate with users who discuss suicide - related deportment , ” according to a recently publishedcontract papers .
The Public Health Agency of Canada plans to work with an AI company called Advanced Symbolics to trawl through more than 160,000 Canadian social media accounts , according to CBC , but the contracted troupe pronounce it will only use anonymized , public data .
TheAdvanced Symbolics website statesthat it does not habituate “ individual communications ” and instead relies on “ publically usable information shared on societal platforms by accept soul . ” Advanced Symbolics also state CBC that it does n’t investigate obscure instances .
Specific contingent on how the firm ’s technology will work in this pilot are thin . According to the contract , Advanced Symbolics will use its research to inform the Public Health Agency of Canada of self-destruction - related discussions by age and grammatical gender , as well as “ change in form and useable jeopardy and protective factor . ” The declaration suggests that Advanced Symbolics can somehow detect “ ideation ( i.e. , sentiment ) , behavior ( i.e. , self-destruction attempts , self - damage , self-annihilation ) , and communications ( i.e. , suicidal threat , plans ) . ”
“ It ’d be a bit freaky if we build something that monitors what everyone is saying and then the government contacts you and said , ‘ Hi , our computer AI has said we opine you ’re likely to toss off yourself ’ , ” Kenton White , primary scientist with Advanced Symbolics , told CBC . We have reached out to Advanced Symbolics to learn more about how the applied science works and how it will use the data point compile throughout this pilot .
The pilot project is slat to jump this calendar month and wrap up by June 2018 . The Canadian politics expect to spend nearly $ 25,000 on the airplane pilot , and could extend the contract by up to five years , finish the enquiry in June 2023 for about $ 400,000 in total .
close to 11 mass commit self-annihilation daily in Canada , allot to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention .
The Canadian administration is certainly not the first to use artificial intelligence agency as a substance to identify and preclude suicide . Facebook said in November of last class that it wouldexpand its own AI - base suicide bar political platform , “ using pattern acknowledgement to detect posts or unrecorded videos where someone might be state thoughts of suicide , and to avail react to report faster . ”
The primal difference between Facebook ’s program and Advanced Symbolics ’ pilot project is that the latter is n’t trying to pinpoint individual cases on a chopine , but rather identifying suicide trends in realm . The firm can reportedly alert the political science to an increase in suicidesup to three month in front of time . It ’s important to note that algorithms arenot free from bias , and they also have a history of screwing up . But if the government is able to get ahead of an expected suicide spike , then it could , for example , increase the bearing of mental wellness professionals in a certain area or among a specific demographic .
outdoors of Canada , other government entities have entertained the idea of deploying algorithmic rule to deal with societal issues . The White Housedeclared a call for data scientist and technologistsin September 2015 to help in suicide prevention , and alsohosted mental health hackathonsacross the country in December of that class . And this year , London ’s Metropolitan Police announcedthat it was form with “ Silicon Valley providers ” to use political machine encyclopedism to flag fry contumely prototype on electronic gadget . But , as we ’ve see fourth dimension and again , artificial tidings is far from flawless , and the police force remark that the organisation still confuse photos of naked body with photos of desert .
If you struggle with self-destructive thoughts please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline : 1 - 800 - 273 - 8255 .
[ CBC ]
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