We rely on experts all the time.
If you need financial advice, you ask an expert.
In the future, however, artificial intelligence (AI) might replace many of these people.
In forensic science, the expert witness plays a vital role.
Lawyers seek them out for their analysis and opinion on specialist evidence.
Weve been investigating the potential for AI to study evidence in forensic science.
Whats in a footprint?
Bloody footprints are common at violent crime scenes.
They allow investigators to reconstruct events and perhaps profile an unknown suspect.
Shoe prints are one of themost commontypes of evidence, especiallyat domestic burglaries.
In the UK, recovered marks are analysed by police forces and used to searcha databaseof footwear patterns.
40% off TNW Conference!
It got it right around 90% of the time.
Anecdotally, weve been told there are fewer than 30 footwear experts in the UK today.
For that reason, we thought AI may be able to help.
This AI takes a black and white footwear impression and automatically recognises the shape of component treads.
Are the component treads square, triangular or circular?
Is there a logo or writing on the shoe impression?
Each of these shapes corresponds to a code in a simple classification.
It is these codes that are used to search the database.
In one of our experiments, an occasional user was given 100 randomly selected shoe prints to analyse.
In comparison the AI was between 60% and 91% successful.
Footwear experts, however, are right nearly 100% of the time.
Will AI replace experts?
AI will never replace the skilled and experienced judgement of a well-trained footwear examiner.
At the same time, the experts who use this AI will replace the ones who dont.
