AI Application – Anti-Human Trafficking

You may recall that we discussed the potential issues and misuse of facial recognition. And, when it comes to facial recognition, it does seem like that a majority of what is covered in the media focuses on the potential pitfalls or the potential negative consequences of this technology. We keep hearing fears and threats of a rising big brother surveillance society, about privacy now being a thing of the past.

What we hear less about though are the positive uses of this technology. The fact is that artificial intelligence and facial recognition has some really cool and promising use cases that are both saving lives and alleviating a lot of harm.

One brief example that we discussed earlier deals with immigration. For those who travel frequently, you know how annoying it can be to wait in long immigration lines. But as discussed, many countries are using biometrics, including facial recognition, to increase the accuracy of immigration processes and simultaneously save us all a bunch of time. 

Perhaps an even more impressive example of how this technology can change the world revolves around human trafficking and modern slavery. Every day around the world millions of people are trapped in modern-day slavery and sexual exploitation through human trafficking   – and human trafficking has been characterized by the US Department of Defense and others as the world’s fastest-growing crime.

Now, we often think that trafficking is just something that happens elsewhere; outside our city, outside our country – or something simply taken out of a movie. But, according to the UN, it happens all around the world.

Now, these human traffickers often use hotels to place their victims – where they can take advantage of the privacy and anonymity accessible through the hospitality industry. Inside those hotel rooms, victims are often photographed and the images are uploaded and advertised on both the open and the dark web.

Fortunately, some companies, like Marinus Analytics, have set out to address parts of this vast and severe issue. Now, Marinus Analytics utilizes AI, facial recognition and machine learning to find useful patterns among vast amounts of data and turn that into actionable intelligence for investigators. Their suite of tools, called Traffic Jam, helps law enforcement follow up on leads more quickly, find and identify victims more effectively, and track down trafficking groups. And, their facial recognition technology (FaceSearch) can assess a photo of a victim and – within a few seconds – find out if this victim has been advertised online, and if so, find out where they may be. 

Another tool, called Hotels 50K, created what is essentially a “facial recognition system for hotel rooms” by training a system to identify discernible markers among images of 50,000 hotels worldwide. By doing so, the AI will enable investigators to find out where an image of a victim was taken.