Tracking Down A Murderer

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I feel like I’ve been highlighting the negative impacts of AI a little too much in the past few months, which might give the impression that this thing is entirely bad. It is definitely not.

You can ask Shanavas A, a police officer in Kerala, whose 19-year-old hunt for a murderer came to a resolution, thanks to AI and deepfakes.

Two Decades Of Haunting

In February 2006, 23-year-old Ranjini, and her 17-day-old twin daughters, were found brutally murdered in a small town called Anchal in Kerala. Her mother Sathamma discovered the body.

The suspects, Army personnels Divil Kumar and Rajesh P, disappeared without a trace, and were declared deserters. Shanavas A, a young police officer who was investigating the case as Circle Inspector, was unable to let go.

Almost two decades later, Shanavas, now a Superintendent of Police, mentions this case to his colleagues at the Technical Intelligence Wing, and piques the interest of one of the officers.

Starting with old photographs of the suspects, the officer used artificial intelligence to age the photos - very similar to how you would age your face on AI editing tool FaceApp. He told Decode’s Hera Rizwan and Saritha S Balan that multiple factors had to be verified to prevent misidentification and wrongful arrests.

Eventually, after trying out various iterations - combinations of hairstyles, facial features, and aging patterns - they were able to match one of the AI-generated photos to a wedding photograph on social media of Divil Kumar, who was using the alias Vishnu. After Kumar’s arrest and confession, they were able to find Rajesh P, who was now living as an interior designer named Praveen. 

Read: How AI Brought Justice To A Kerala Mother After 19 Years | Decode 

According to Sathamma’s comments to Decode, Kumar had allegedly raped Rajini after stalking her, leading to the birth of her twins. Not keen on facing the consequences of his actions, Kumar got his friend Rajesh P to pose as Anil Kumar and befriend the family, and eventually murder Rajini and her twins.

As tragic as the case is, its resolution is a clear indication that AI has tremendous potential in solving crimes.

Now, if you’ve read my past newsletters, you might be wondering whether I’m contradicting myself here - having earlier foreboded the dangers of widespread and unrestrained integration of AI-led techs like facial recognition by authorities. So let me clarify - equipping cops with the latest technology is not bad, as long as it’s done in a transparent and methodical manner, taking into account the risks, and putting in place measures to reduce them.

For example - if the officers at Technical Intelligence Wing were to be hasty, they could have caught a few entirely different people and messed up their lives.

The First Chatbot Stalker

AI is truly a double-edged sword. While it can help close a 19-year-old murder case, it can also arm stalkers with cutting-edge harassment techniques.

For the past seven years, 36-year-old James Florence of Massachusetts has been stalking a university professor he used to be friends with. Eventually, the stalking took a darker turn, when he fed his victim’s personal details - employment history to family information  - to AI chatbot creators CrushOn.ai and JanitorAI to make convincing digital impersonations of his victim.

This AI chatbot would then speak to strangers on the internet and invite them home - to the victim’s home. After strangers started showing up at her place, the victim and her husband were forced to install surveillance cameras and doorbell alarms.

Read: A man stalked a professor for six years. Then he used AI chatbots to lure strangers to her home | The Guardian

Florence also targeted other individuals, including a minor, creating and distributing digitally altered explicit images and impersonating them on platforms like “OkCupid, X, Yahoo, Classmates.com, Facebook and escort websites.”

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About Decode and Deepfake Watch

Deepfake Watch is an initiative by Decode, dedicated to keeping you abreast of the latest developments in AI and its potential for misuse. Our goal is to foster an informed community capable of challenging digital deceptions and advocating for a transparent digital environment.

We invite you to join the conversation, share your experiences, and contribute to the collective effort to maintain the integrity of our digital landscape. Together, we can build a future where technology amplifies truth, not obscures it.

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