Developing AI for a safer Netherlands
What is ethical and responsible artificial intelligence (AI)? The COVID-19 pandemic and unrest surrounding forced migration and farmers' protests highlight the importance of public safety. Ensuring public safety is a constant challenge in the pursuit of a balance between freedom and security.
The role of AI in decisions and security measures
AI algorithms can support institutions in making decisions and taking security measures. Pattern recognition in videos, for example, can automatically detect abnormal patterns at neighborhood gatherings. Semantic pattern recognition in texts can detect rising tensions in groups on social media. AI algorithms can thus assist local authorities in scaling up intervention activities.
At the same time, AI can inadvertently introduce new risks, such as loss of trust or sense of control. AI MAPS therefore focuses on the ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of AI development and application—to prevent the solution from being worse than the problem.
About the ELSA Lab AI Multi-Agency Public Safety
ELSA Lab AI Multi-Agency Public Safety Issues (MAPS) takes a perspective based on public values, with a focus on freedom and social welfare. From this basis, the lab focuses on three safety issues that require joint action:
- Social unrest and nuisance in neighborhoods
- The approach to serious crime,
- Safely organizing and supervising crowds and events.
Guiding responsible AI in public safety
AI MAPS is building an ecosystem of mutual learning to responsibly guide the growing use of AI applications. Within this ecosystem, public, private, and academic parties work together on shared security issues. Governance, investment choices, and substantive vision come together in this process. This means, among other things:
- ELSA guidelines that organizations can use when designing, rolling out, and evaluating AI systems, with a focus on diverse citizen needs and public values.
- An investment framework that helps decision-makers determine which AI applications are worthwhile and responsible to invest in.
- Fundamental research by four doctoral students working on ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding AI and public safety.
- Knowledge sharing via the ELSA Network, making insights and best practices more widely accessible to other labs and organizations.
These safety issues are examined from an AI ecology perspective. The AI systems, methods, and applications are part of hybrid intelligence, in which humans and AI work together. The goal is not to replace humans, but to enhance human well-being. Nature is also considered a stakeholder in this process.
Collaboration partners
Safety issues surrounding AI affect multiple domains simultaneously and therefore require different perspectives. Within the lab, more than twenty public, private, and academic partners work together on shared tasks, each from their own role and expertise. These include:
- The National Police
- Woonstad Rotterdam (housing association)
- Rathenau Institute
- HSD (The Hague Security Delta)
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
- TU Delft
- Leiden University
- TNO
- ICAI
- Deloitte
Want to know more or collaborate?
For more information, visit the project website or contact Prof. Dr. G (Gabriele) Jacobs at g.jacobs@essb.eur.nl.
