UK Government Developing Controversial AI ‘Murder Prediction’ Tool

The UK government is working on a controversial project that uses AI to predict who might commit murder in the future.

The existence of the program came to light through freedom of information requests obtained by the watchdog group Statewatch.

Their findings suggest that sensitive personal data is being used. These include health records, mental health information, addiction history, and data about people who have not been convicted of any crimes.

Statewatch reports that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is leading this plan, examining existing authority records of people to stop serious crimes from happening.

Originally named the “homicide prediction project,” it’s now called “sharing data to improve risk assessment.” The project is currently in a research phase, but campaigners and privacy advocates have raised concerns, as reported by Statewatch.

However, officials deny this. The Guardian reports that a Ministry of Justice spokesperson stated: “This project is being conducted for research purposes only. It has been designed using existing data held by HM Prison and Probation Service and police forces on convicted offenders to help us better understand the risk of people on probation going on to commit serious violence. A report will be published in due course.”

According to Statewatch, police in Greater Manchester shared data on up to half a million people. This included victims, suspects, and people in vulnerable situations.

Sofia Lyall, a researcher at Statewatch, strongly criticized the project, saying: “The Ministry of Justice’s attempt to build this murder prediction system is the latest chilling and dystopian example of the government’s intent to develop so-called crime ‘prediction’ systems.”

She warned the system would deepen racial and class discrimination: “This latest model, which uses data from our institutionally racist police and Home Office, will reinforce and magnify the structural discrimination underpinning the criminal legal system.”

“Using such sensitive data on mental health, addiction and disability is highly intrusive and alarming,” she added.

The government argues that tools like this could improve how probation services assess risk and prevent violent crime. But critics say the system could lead to people being unfairly labelled as potential murderers due to flawed and biased data.

The government argues that these tools will improve the ability of probation services to evaluate risk and stop violent crimes from occurring. Critics, however, warn that the system risks labeling people as potential murderers through bad and biased data.

While still under development, Statewatch reports that documents mention the “future operationalisation” of the system, raising concerns that it could soon be used in real-world policing decisions.