7 ms·

Idea: AI police sketch artist. 3D printed case. Resting on a table. Witness describes the suspect. 10 seconds later it prints out an AI generated ink sketch.

Idea: AI police sketch artist. 3D printed case. Resting on a table. Witness describes the suspect. 10 seconds later it prints out an AI generated ink sketch. I mean why not? Sell it through to every police station in your state. You can even put a cute little police badge emblem on the case.

anitakirkovska 3y ago
hahaha that's not a bad idea at all
- radarsat1 3y ago
  It's intriguing, because I wonder how this would affect police work. I'm imagining things here, but I assume that when a profile sketch is developed, all officers using that image know that it's "just a sketch" because, it looks like a drawing, because it is one. So what happens if you now generate a photorealistic "sketch" based on a description? Are officers going to be sufficiently aware to know that's not a actual photo of the guy they are looking for, and act accordingly? Or is it going to heavily bias a manhunt effort? moreover, what happens when the photo randomly ends up close to someone present in the dataset?
  - lalopalota 3y ago
    make the system output a sketch. boom - problem solved.
    - Solvency 3y ago
      Prints "<eye witness description of suspect> in <${art style}>" Driven by a little knob selector. Featuring 3 art styles: 1. Police sketch classic 2. Realistic photo 3. Manga character
    - radarsat1 3y ago
      I know that would solve the problem. What I'm curious about is what happens if that isn't done, because I can see promoting the idea of a "photorealistic AI sketch artist" as a very attractive proposal for a certain type of manager. It's just a thought experiment.
  - giraffe_lady 3y ago
    The police already know those sketches are super fake lol. The point of those isn't to arrest the right person it's to have an excuse to hassle arrest or maybe kill a minority.
ge96 3y ago
yeah something I thought about before, all of a sudden you're the most wanted person and police just complies because that's what the system says would be crazy, probably a movie plot somewhere
- foolproofplan 3y ago
  i love the idea! personally, i'd cast tom cruise in it cause he's just such a great actor.
- Aromasin 3y ago
  I doubt it would change anything from what they do currently with police sketches; it would just be a faster, more accurate version. It's still just one piece of data they have to work from. The victim could describe the person to an AI, and it would update the 3D model on the fly. "White Male, Curly hair, mole on face" Generate. "Good, but he had a larger nose, and blue eyes." Generate. "He was a bit more gaunt, and had some stubble." Generate. "Nearly there. More pronounced check bones, and make the jaw a bit softer" Generate. In 5 minutes or less, you could get a near exact picture of the potential criminal; something that might take up to an hour or more normally with a professional police sketch artist, and it could easily be in 3D too. There's tremendous value in that.
  - code_runner 3y ago
    I think having the feedback throughout the process would probably taint the whole thing
  - themoonisachees 3y ago
    This implies there is such a thing as a reliable eyewitness. Even victims themselves are famously bad at identifying criminals.
    - oceanplexian 3y ago
      There is probably some "wisdom in crowds" for identifying a suspect. For example one person usually can't estimate the number of gumballs in a jar, but some studies have shown that if you survey 100 people you get a very accurate number. Maybe you need far less than that.. 2-3 people + AI perhaps comes up with a reasonably accurate estimation of reality.
itronitron 3y ago
That opens up a whole new set of job opportunities for "prompt engineering"
discordianfish 3y ago
These ideas are what we should be worried about, not the paperclip thing.
- yyyk 3y ago
  How is that idea any more concerning than a regular human-drawn police sketch?
  - jkestner 3y ago
    Lack of accountability.
    - ygjb 3y ago
      Police in your jurisdiction are held accountable?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - yyyk 3y ago
      Accountability for what? I recall Procedure already requires approval of the final sketch by the witness. Witnesses could always make mistakes, but that's true even in the current process. Or is your argument sketches should never be used? In fairness, with the ubiquity of cameras, sketches are much less required...
  - giraffe_lady 3y ago
    Didn't see the comments yesterday where HN achieved consensus that racist AI might be real but isn't that bad if it is?
    - yyyk 3y ago
      Our hypothetical AI won't make any decisions. It just makes sketches as described and approved by witnesses. The relevant racism here is the one any witnesses may have, that's true even with a human police sketch artist.
notjulianjaynes 3y ago
As I understand it most police departments already use some kind of computer aided facial composite software instead of a traditional sketch artist. I can think of several dystopian reasons throwing AI into the mix might not be great, but tbe larger problem with this is why does it need to be sketched in pen and why does it need to be cute. Might make a neat like coin op charicature thing though.
mcbuilder 3y ago
Well, maybe it will be a plus then for minorities that all of the training data is of white people. I only joke, as this is a horrible idea all around, but I appreciate your creativity.
c22 3y ago
Why not use an injection molded case?
fho 3y ago
Not an expert, but my intuition is that most of the sketch artists job is asking the right questions. I would assume that most people would have trouble describing close friends or even their partners from memory. Somewhat tangential: the "part of the brain" that is responsible for recognizing faces is incredibly well developed. That "peek-a-boo" game that you play with children? Every time you uncover your face millions of neurons in the childs brain suddenly fire giving them a jolt of "joy". The face recognition is so developed that we tend to see faces were there are none (face pareidolia). ... the point being that the brain does a lot of unconscious work recognizing individuals. Describing those individuals later consciously is pretty error prone.

anitakirkovska 3y ago

hahaha that's not a bad idea at all

radarsat1 3y ago
It's intriguing, because I wonder how this would affect police work. I'm imagining things here, but I assume that when a profile sketch is developed, all officers using that image know that it's "just a sketch" because, it looks like a drawing, because it is one. So what happens if you now generate a photorealistic "sketch" based on a description? Are officers going to be sufficiently aware to know that's not a actual photo of the guy they are looking for, and act accordingly? Or is it going to heavily bias a manhunt effort? moreover, what happens when the photo randomly ends up close to someone present in the dataset?
- lalopalota 3y ago
  make the system output a sketch. boom - problem solved.
  - Solvency 3y ago
    Prints "<eye witness description of suspect> in <${art style}>" Driven by a little knob selector. Featuring 3 art styles: 1. Police sketch classic 2. Realistic photo 3. Manga character
  - radarsat1 3y ago
    I know that would solve the problem. What I'm curious about is what happens if that isn't done, because I can see promoting the idea of a "photorealistic AI sketch artist" as a very attractive proposal for a certain type of manager. It's just a thought experiment.
- giraffe_lady 3y ago
  The police already know those sketches are super fake lol. The point of those isn't to arrest the right person it's to have an excuse to hassle arrest or maybe kill a minority.

ge96 3y ago

yeah something I thought about before, all of a sudden you're the most wanted person and police just complies because that's what the system says would be crazy, probably a movie plot somewhere

foolproofplan 3y ago
i love the idea! personally, i'd cast tom cruise in it cause he's just such a great actor.
Aromasin 3y ago
I doubt it would change anything from what they do currently with police sketches; it would just be a faster, more accurate version. It's still just one piece of data they have to work from. The victim could describe the person to an AI, and it would update the 3D model on the fly. "White Male, Curly hair, mole on face" Generate. "Good, but he had a larger nose, and blue eyes." Generate. "He was a bit more gaunt, and had some stubble." Generate. "Nearly there. More pronounced check bones, and make the jaw a bit softer" Generate. In 5 minutes or less, you could get a near exact picture of the potential criminal; something that might take up to an hour or more normally with a professional police sketch artist, and it could easily be in 3D too. There's tremendous value in that.
- code_runner 3y ago
  I think having the feedback throughout the process would probably taint the whole thing
- themoonisachees 3y ago
  This implies there is such a thing as a reliable eyewitness. Even victims themselves are famously bad at identifying criminals.
  - oceanplexian 3y ago
    There is probably some "wisdom in crowds" for identifying a suspect. For example one person usually can't estimate the number of gumballs in a jar, but some studies have shown that if you survey 100 people you get a very accurate number. Maybe you need far less than that.. 2-3 people + AI perhaps comes up with a reasonably accurate estimation of reality.

itronitron 3y ago

That opens up a whole new set of job opportunities for "prompt engineering"

discordianfish 3y ago

These ideas are what we should be worried about, not the paperclip thing.

yyyk 3y ago
How is that idea any more concerning than a regular human-drawn police sketch?
- jkestner 3y ago
  Lack of accountability.
  - ygjb 3y ago
    Police in your jurisdiction are held accountable?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - yyyk 3y ago
    Accountability for what? I recall Procedure already requires approval of the final sketch by the witness. Witnesses could always make mistakes, but that's true even in the current process. Or is your argument sketches should never be used? In fairness, with the ubiquity of cameras, sketches are much less required...
- giraffe_lady 3y ago
  Didn't see the comments yesterday where HN achieved consensus that racist AI might be real but isn't that bad if it is?
  - yyyk 3y ago
    Our hypothetical AI won't make any decisions. It just makes sketches as described and approved by witnesses. The relevant racism here is the one any witnesses may have, that's true even with a human police sketch artist.

notjulianjaynes 3y ago

As I understand it most police departments already use some kind of computer aided facial composite software instead of a traditional sketch artist. I can think of several dystopian reasons throwing AI into the mix might not be great, but tbe larger problem with this is why does it need to be sketched in pen and why does it need to be cute. Might make a neat like coin op charicature thing though.

mcbuilder 3y ago

Well, maybe it will be a plus then for minorities that all of the training data is of white people. I only joke, as this is a horrible idea all around, but I appreciate your creativity.

c22 3y ago

Why not use an injection molded case?

fho 3y ago

Not an expert, but my intuition is that most of the sketch artists job is asking the right questions. I would assume that most people would have trouble describing close friends or even their partners from memory. Somewhat tangential: the "part of the brain" that is responsible for recognizing faces is incredibly well developed. That "peek-a-boo" game that you play with children? Every time you uncover your face millions of neurons in the childs brain suddenly fire giving them a jolt of "joy". The face recognition is so developed that we tend to see faces were there are none (face pareidolia). ... the point being that the brain does a lot of unconscious work recognizing individuals. Describing those individuals later consciously is pretty error prone.