OTTAWA—Experts are urging Correctional Service Canada to slow down after it claimed using artificial intelligence to help create criminal profile reports for prisoners would save time and maintain accuracy, despite using just six text cases in a trial.
The warnings come as CSC considers rolling out generative AI tools that would summarize sensitive documents used to write influential assessment profiles of offenders going to prisons, as the Star has reported, raising alarm about the potential for the summaries to be tainted by AI-generated hallucinations or biases.
Criminal profile reports are “foundational documents” prepared by CSC staff during a prisoner’s intake process that identify risks and play a role in major decisions like access to programs and likelihood of parole.
Drawing from scores of other documents, they include details about: an offender’s criminal history; the circumstances of their crimes; patterns of violence; behavioural, mental health and addiction issues; family and social background; trauma history; education and employment records; and victim impact statements.
Sorelle Friedler, a professor of computer science at Haverford College who helped develop AI policy for former U.S. president Joe Biden, said “there’s no way to prove anything” with a trial of just six cases.
Jenny Kwan, the NDP’s public safety critic, said the government’s talk of safeguards is not sufficient. She is calling for an independent assessment, broad stakeholder engagement, and checks and balances on any potential rollout.
“I think that the issues and concerns around biases that are embedded into the AI system is still there. They have not addressed that issue,” Kwan told the Star. “The government needs to be open and transparent with this.”
