German-speaking police officers will use artificial intelligence (AI) to practice questioning children. A pilot project of this type is starting this fall for a period of one year. Researchers from Zurich and Lucerne have developed a “virtual child” for this purpose.
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Interrogations of children are demanding because toddlers are quickly influenced by adults and sometimes remember things that did not happen, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU) wrote on Wednesday. In addition, ethical reasons prevent police officers from training in this type of interrogation with real children.
This is why the HSLU, together with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), developed software that simulates the behavior of a child in such a situation, using artificial intelligence. To practice, the police can question him. The computer program responds differently depending on the content of the questions and the way they are asked.
Way of expressing oneself and facial expressions of children
For example, leading questions asked of the virtual child result in false answers that do not correspond to the child’s original memory.
Developing the “Virtual kids” program was complicated, HSLU admits in its press release. The researchers had to teach the artificial intelligence to express itself like a child and to adopt infantile facial expressions. The latter play an important role during interrogations.
The pilot tests carried out throughout German-speaking Switzerland should allow researchers to assess whether training with AI allows police officers to improve in the way they question real children.
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