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Angela Lipps is a resident of Tennessee (USA) who has never been on a plane or taken a trip to other states in the country. Even so ended up in a security cell 2,000 km from her home for a terrifying reason: AI facial recognition software decided that her face matched that of a scammer operating in North Dakota. we have it. It all started with the clue given by the security cameras. Fargo police were investigating a bank fraud in which a woman used fake military IDs to withdraw huge amounts of money. The detectives in charge of the case decided to entrust the work of recognizing the images from the security cameras to a AI facial recognition softwareand after the analysis the system returned a name: Angela Lipps. An agent took a look at her social media, decided that her body and hairstyle matched those of the suspect, and signed the arrest warrant. like in the movies. A US Marshals team showed up at Lipps’ home in Tennessee and He detained her at gunpoint. She was babysitting four children, but that didn’t matter: she was treated like a fugitive from justice. They did not ask him any prior questions, nor did they compare his version. They didn’t even have physical evidence that placed her in North Dakota beyond what the facial recognition system had said. And since the AI ​​said it, it had to be true, right? Six months in prison (and in limbo). Being considered a fugitive, Lipps was not eligible for bail, and spent 108 days in a Tennessee jail waiting to be extradited to a state she had never visited. Then, in late October, she was transferred to a prison in North Dakota. In all that time, no one at the Fargo Police Department bothered to even check to see if the suspect had an alibi because once again, there was no need to check: AI couldn’t fail. At least, according to the police forces that were in charge of the case. Zasca. The funny thing is that proving Lipps’ innocence was really easy. When a public defender finally reviewed the suspect’s bank statements, the case fell apart. While the scammer was stealing thousands of dollars in North Dakota, Angela Lipps was buying tobacco at a Tennessee gas station, using Uber Eats and cashing her Social Security check in her hometown. The GPS and bank records were definitive and irrefutable evidence. Come home come back. On December 24, on Christmas Eve, the prosecutor’s office in charge of handling the case dropped the charges and Angela Lipps was released. Of course: they did it without further ado, on the street, in a state she didn’t know and where it was very cold while she had been arrested wearing summer clothes. The defense lawyers were in charge of paying for a hotel for him and another NGO called F5 Project helped him return home. The tragedy does not end there. The problem is that his return to Tennessee was not happy at all. During the six months he spent in prison, Lipps was unable to pay his bills and ended up losing his house, his car, his savings and even his dog. The Fargo police chief, who held a news conference to mark his retirement, did not even want to answer questions about the case. There has been no official apology or compensation for this huge police error. It’s not the first time, but it seems incredible that it won’t be the last.. We do not know what will end up happening with this scandal, but it is not the first of its kind that has occurred. In the US they have been arresting suspects using facial recognition systems for some time, but These systems fail and cause arrests of innocent people. This type of problem of poor application of AI tools in criminal investigations is present in Spain, where we already talked about the tragic consequences of using VioGén or what happened to him false complaint detection system just a year ago. AI can help, but in these types of processes human supervision is especially crucial. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | AI videos have broken Instagram and TikTok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI dumps”