Man spent almost a year in jail due to erroneous AI-based evidence

 The main evidence in the investigation was data from the ShotSpotter surveillance system.



Artificial intelligence can run driverless cars or contribute to more secure computing systems. Though this is not always the case, AI-based evidence might sometimes lead to the conviction of a person who is, in fact, innocent. 65-year-old Michael Williams was arrested last August on murder charges following a riot in which he allegedly killed a young guy, the Associated Press said.

ShotSpotter, a company that use AI to locate gunshots, signed a $33 million deal with the city of Chicago in 2018 to establish a surveillance network in the city. Williams found himself in danger due of this technology on May 31, 2020.

Williams made the decision to buy smokes from a gas station near the end of the evening, but when he arrived at the business, he discovered that looters had broken in during the disturbances. Safarian Herring, 25, made him go for a walk by gesturing when he saw him. They were shortly greeted by a vehicle next to them at a crosswalk. Williams was attacked by an unnamed passenger, who attempted to shoot him but missed and hit Herring instead. The Saint Bernard Hospital saw Herring's death on June 2, 2020.

After three months, the cops tracked Williams down. He was questioned and imprisoned in advance of his trial on first-degree murder accusations. Video surveillance footage from ShotSpotter became the evidence of the crime. That evening, ShotSpotter notified the police to a loud noise detected by its sensors. The prosecution's allegation that Williams shot Herring in his car was bolstered by the so-called "evidence," despite the fact that the inquiry did not uncover any motive, eyewitness, or murder weapon.

The system eventually reported a 98 percent certainty that it detected a fireworks explosion. While the gunfire is audible on the audio file, an employee of the company highlighted it after listening to the recording. Moreover, the algorithm moved the noise source location during post-processing.

After being jailed for almost 11 months, Williams was diagnosed with two separate cases of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and suffered from violent tremors. Williams walked into the courtroom and was greeted by a Gaughan ruling of "no evidence" on the charges that Williams was up against. On the evening of July 23, Williams was finally able to leave Cook County Jail a free man.

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