The Department of Defense didn’t put a human in the loop until well after an AI-generated report raised concerns. The Philadelphia Police were smarter, with a bot AND a human in the loop.
This story involves Anthropic and some testing that got out of control.
“The AI company Anthropic said its model was conducting a test involving interactions with randomly selected websites when it accessed PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com and submitted false information on an unsolved homicide. The tip claimed to come from someone with information on the case.”
The false report was filed on July 18, but Anthropic didn’t discover it until more than two months later, on September 28. This was particularly worrisome, since this could have resulted in a “confess your crime” waste of police resources (Kevin and Bean fans know).
The company instituted controls to prevent this in the future. Then Anthropic did the right thing and notified the Philadelphia Police Department on Wednesday (October 7). The two parties met the next day, and the police then investigated to see what happened to the false report.
Nothing. “Police then located the submission in the website’s tip records and confirmed the corresponding email remained in spam.”
As we all know, spam flags are often automated, occasionally letting spam get through, occasionally stopping real messages from being delivered. Check your spam folder every few days for the latter, especially if you’re expecting an important message.
But even if the false tip made it past the anti-spam bot, there were other protections.
“Regardless of who submits information or how it reaches the department, a tip is a lead to assess – not an established fact. Investigators evaluate its credibility and seek corroborating evidence. An automated submission does not bypass that process.”
After all these years, someone is finally acknowledging that an investigative lead is only a lead.
And a bot and a human are working together.
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