Citizen Perspectives on Necessary Safeguards to the Use of AI by Law Enforcement Agencies

In the light of modern technological advances, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is relied upon to enhance performance, increase efficiency, and maximize gains. For Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), it can prove valuable in optimizing evidence analysis and establishing proactive prevention measures. Nevertheless, citizens raise legitimate concerns around privacy invasions, biases, inequalities, and inaccurate decisions. This study explores the views of 111 citizens towards AI use by police through interviews, and integrates societal concerns along with propositions of safeguards from negative effects of AI use by LEAs in the context of cybercrime and terrorism.Comment: CSCE 2022 Conference Proceeding

Safety, privacy, or both: evaluating citizens’ perspectives around artificial intelligence use by police forces

Back pain is the leading cause of disability with half of cases attributed to intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, yet currently no therapies target this cause. We previously reported an ex vivo caprine loaded disc culture system (LDCS) that accurately represents the cellular phenotype and biomechanical environment of human IVD degeneration. Here, the efficacy of an injectable hydrogel system (LAPONITE® crosslinked pNIPAM-co-DMAc, (NPgel)) to halt or reverse the catabolic processes of IVD degeneration was investigated within the LDCS. Following enzymatic induction of degeneration using 1 mg mL−1 collagenase and 2 U mL−1 chondroitinase ABC within the LDCS for 7 days, IVDs were injected with NPgel alone or with encapsulated human bone marrow progenitor cells (BMPCs). Un-injected caprine discs served as degenerate controls. IVDs were cultured for a further 21 days within the LDCS. Tissues were then processed for histology and immunohistochemistry. No extrusion of NPgel was observed during culture. A significant decrease in histological grade of degeneration was seen in both IVDs injected with NPgel alone and NPgel seeded with BMPCs, compared to un-injected controls. Fissures within degenerate tissue were filled by NPgel and there was evidence of native cell migration into injected NPgel. The expression of healthy NP matrix markers (collagen type II and aggrecan) was increased, whereas the expression of catabolic proteins (MMP3, ADAMTS4, IL-1β and IL-8) was decreased in NPgel (±BMPCs) injected discs, compared to degenerate controls. This demonstrates that NPgel promotes new matrix production at the same time as halting the degenerative cascade within a physiologically relevant testing platform. This highlights the potential of NPgel as a future therapy for IVD degeneration

Ireland’s Emerging Cyber Crisis: An Online Decentralized Movement for Nationalist Violence and Anti-Immigration/Muslim Attacks

In recent years, Ireland has seen an influx of immigrants and refugees during an ongoing housing crisis fueled by labor shortages. The majority of those affected by the housing crisis are Irish nationals. A campaign of real-world mobillizations has arisen in wake of the refugee and housing crisis, with hundreds of protests in Ireland between November 2022 and April 2023. Migrants are being physcially assaulted, demonstrating the movement’s potential for violence. In the Cyber-social domain these mobilizations are rapidly spurring a decentralized social movement which uses hashtags such as #Irelandisfull, and references Ireland along with white identitarian/supremacy terms and the Great Replacement conspiracy. These terms have nearly doubled since November of 2022 and Ireland now appears as an emerging online flashpoint for global ethnic nationalist movements. Along with these terms, NCRI notes surges in inflammatory generalizations about immigrants, and misrepresent immigrants as collectively dangerous, despite no significant correlation between the arrival of migrants and crime rates in Ireland. Complete with cartoonish and violent memes on subcultural forums and White genocide conspiracy theories, NCRI assesses that should this online, ultra-nationalist, anti-immigrant movement continue growing in its current trajectory, Ireland will face dramatic increases in anti-immigrant and anti-democratic mobiliizations and violenc

Citizen Perspectives on Necessary Safeguards to the Use of AI by Law Enforcement Agencies

In the light of modern technological advances, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is relied upon to enhance performance, increase efficiency, and maximize gains. For Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), it can prove valuable in optimizing evidence analysis and establishing proactive prevention measures. Nevertheless, citizens raise legitimate concerns around privacy invasions, biases, inequalities, and inaccurate decisions. This study explores the views of 111 citizens across eight countries towards AI use by police through interviews and integrates societal concerns along with propositions of safeguards from negative effects of AI use by LEAs in the context of cybercrime and terrorism