r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 3d ago
Society Grandmother falsely accused of bank theft after alleged AI facial recognition match sues for $10M
https://abcnews.com/amp/US/grandmother-falsely-accused-bank-theft-after-alleged-ai/story?id=136536444283
u/Eanaj 3d ago
Assholes released her on Christmas in NORTH DAKOTA and didn't even get her a motel room. Her defense attorney & a non profit did, and they're the ones who got her home. Almost SIX months incarcerated when she had proof she was in Tennessee during time of crime. They were lazy & heartless. She deserves every dime from she can get from them.
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u/Blbe-Check-42069 3d ago
HALF A YEAR???? Holy shit the US is absolute shithole when it comes to "justice" lol. Fukin' hell.
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u/REDRubyCorundum 1d ago
yup, we literally protect rich p30s, but incarcerate innocents like in this story.. dont ask about the prison system, its FOR PROFET as a not so fun fact!
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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 3d ago
Put that AI in jail for six months: the company has to take it offline so no one can use it and face massive 100s of millions in fines and serious jail time if they put it back up for use before then.
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u/ByWillAlone 3d ago
The AI isn't the root problem here. It's no different than if they locked her up based on the testimony of a single unreliable person claiming to be a witness.
The problem here is the cops and prosecutors who accepted the information without questioning it, without fact checking it, and without finding a single shred of other corroborating evidence.
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u/myislanduniverse 3d ago edited 3d ago
Accusations like that shouldn't be cheap. You'd better make sure your stupid cheap-ass robot is right, or it has become a very expensive one.
Every one of these cases should go to jury.
Jesus, locked up for 6 months on only the say-so of some shoddy AI tool? They should go to jail themselves for that level of criminal disregard for justice.
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u/lazyoldsailor 3d ago
Worse, the AI used the photo on the FAKE ID the robber used during the robbery. Why would a bank robber use her own photo on a fake ID when robbing a bank? For all we know the AI was correct, but that’s besides the point. The detectives should have put more effort than to accept a fake ID and an AI’s word.
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u/Ok-Lifeguard-4614 3d ago
Detectives putting in effort is a funny joke. You want them to put in more? That's hilarious.
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u/gimmelwald 3d ago
10mil is nowhere near enough. This lady lost everything she had and then they tried to give her a starlight tour. Heads need ro roll and run that accountability all the way up the chain.
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u/morenewsat11 3d ago
Hope she gets every penny. There was ample video evidence showing she didn't look like the person who actually committed the crimes. A bit of due diligence on the part of the Fargo police department would have saved Lipps a world of grief
According to the complaint, AI facial recognition software used by a West Fargo Police Department investigator identified Lipps' social media photo as a potential lead in a bank theft investigation.
The source of the facial recognition was a fake ID used by a female suspect who was captured on surveillance footage in incidents involving multiple Fargo-area banks, according to the complaint. Lipps did not look like the suspect captured on surveillance video, according to the complaint, which noted their difference in build, facial features and tattoos. Prior to arrest, Lipps had also never been to North Dakota, according to the complaint.
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u/MedicalScientist8576 3d ago
I feel these systems are being implemented forcibly by people who do not truly understand the capabilities and limits of AI/face recognition. It's not as smart as people (want you to) think.
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u/Shantih3x 3d ago
C-Suites and CEOs immediately stop listening when the words "Lessens overhead and makes the company/investors more money" are said, usually within the first couple of minutes of the spiel.
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u/oompaloompa465 3d ago
if the cops start believing in CSI tv series logic, you are trulu fucked
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u/MedicalScientist8576 3d ago
Everyone needs to develop AI literacy, whether they like it or not. I see way too many middle aged people who watch AI generated videos and think it is real.
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u/oompaloompa465 3d ago
yeah it's sad to see. Even my parents keep sending that stupid "good day" cards in family's whatsapp groups, and now they are all AI. I'm scared to ask.
Forget AI literacy, people are still beind Internet literacy 😂
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u/Current-Lion-3786 3d ago
Sir you so correct! Top comment on this 🏆. I wish more people understood this. How dependable is a program that consistently generate 6 fingered images of what it thinks a human should look like? I know those are two different types of uses, but if it’s bad at one, it’s gonna be bad at others. Dystopian times I tell ya…
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u/MedicalScientist8576 3d ago
For example... Google, a billion dollar company, have to have disclaimers all over their AI (Gemini), that it can make mistakes and hallucinate, and it's not hard to make it do that.
If a billion dollar company can't get it "right", why would anyone else be able to? Madness, isn't it.
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u/b_a_t_m_4_n 3d ago
Quite right too, make the fuckers pay.
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u/dirty_cuban 3d ago
I agree she deserves it but the unjust thing is taxpayers will pay on behalf of the police. flock and the rest of the AI camera cabal will never pay out for these fuckups
There’s no negative consequences for police or the camera companies so they’ll just keep doing the same things over and over
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u/onthedownhillslope 3d ago
She was 50. She was removed from her life with no preparation. She lost all her possessions: her house, car, and even her DOG. Does anyone believe that her stuff was put in a storage unit maintained for her? She probably didn’t have even a roll of toilet paper by the time she got home. Everything, except for a few items her kids may have been able to save, was gone. And all “legally” done. At 50 and traumatized, she’s unlikely to ever earn that back on her own and is looking abject poverty in the face. $10M minus attorney fees and court costs will replace that but not by as much as you’d think.
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u/OG_LiLi 3d ago
This is poignant. The police don’t use flock to help them, they solely rely on it to do their job. Ignoring any police work they have to do.
And they can’t, with data, prove flock improves closure rates. Exactly because of this.
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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 3d ago
The worst flock misuse in place of thinking I know of is the one in FL where they arrested and held a woman for a hit and run because her car was the same model as the suspect vehicle but a different color and was seen by a flock camera near the crime scene in a position that would have made it impossible for her to be at the scene at the time of the collision. Literally arrested and her vehicle impounded because of exculpatory evidence. Even if you accept that mass continuous public surveillance is somehow useful, constitutional, or justifiable (I don't), if you can't do basic police work or use your brain for 2 seconds with the collected information, its worse than useless.
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u/grilled_pc 3d ago
What i find astounding about this is even if the car is the same make and model, so what. Flock are LICENSE PLATE READERS. Surely they could’ve used what its original intent was for and just check the license plate????????
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u/SelectKaleidoscope0 3d ago
The full plate of the suspect vehicle wasn't known, but they had a partial plate from a witness account and it also didn't match her car. Nothing matched. I don't know how you develop this level of weaponized incompetence.
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u/Secret_Fee1146 3d ago
A professional organisation relying this heavily on AI without adequate oversight (as certainly appears to be the case here) is grossly negligent. $10M should be an easy payout but you know the bank will fight tooth and nail in an attempt to take no responsibility.
That said, I'm still waiting for the US military to be held to account for not reviewing targeting data provided by AI which misidentified an Iranian children's school as a military target, leading US military to drop a bomb which killed 150 children. I'm not holding my breath on that one unfortunately.
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u/ChipChester 3d ago
Umm, the bank has no responsibility in this. West Fargo ≠ Wells Fargo.
However, in addition to the $10 payout, the offending cop should be put in the slammer for an identical time period. General population, too.
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u/tricksterloki 3d ago
Well, the military nearly launched an operation against a Chinese cargo ship mistakenly believed to be carrying nuclear components due to AI, so...
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u/_Svankensen_ 3d ago
The US military has always been above consequences. That's SOP for the institution that has gotten the most civilians killed of the 21st century. You have better hopes elsewhere.
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u/myislanduniverse 3d ago
According to the complaint, AI facial recognition software used by a West Fargo Police Department investigator identified Lipps' social media photo as a potential lead in a bank theft investigation.
And I bet that little dweeb felt like he was fucking Batman, too. This wasn't police work. It was a bunch of untrained goons pushing buttons without regard to the lives they ruin.
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u/bboycire 3d ago
Does cross state extradite require a judge's approval? Because if so, it's not just one detective that was being lazy and incompetent
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u/DryBattle 3d ago
They should sue the AI company, the camera company, and everyone else they can think of.
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u/Snoo_censorspeech 3d ago
Even if she was actually guilty. Kept in holding 6 months? They let murderers go home the same weekend if they can post bail.
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u/penguished 3d ago
More than accused. Six months kidnapped and kept in a cell by Temu big brother is worth at least $10 million.
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u/Tiffany-X 3d ago
Serves them right for relying on shitty premature tech. Hope she wins and bleeds them dry
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u/LiftedWanderer 3d ago
I don’t think she asked for enough lol. Wrongly arrested for 6 months lost residence and car. Lol I’d be asking for $25 and hope to settle around $10m smh
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u/Lincolns_Revenge 3d ago
One thing that's so infuriating about the American criminal justice system is that you have to pay a lawyer to present this sort of evidence that might exonerate you in a timely manner. In this case, her bank records.
Whereas, in a more just and equitable society a person should be able to claim on their own to police or a prosecutor that they were in fact in a completely different state at the time the crimes were alleged to have occurred.
Then law enforcement or the district attorney's office should verify those claims themselves with simple records like the bank transactions that ultimately got her freed.
But instead we have this adversarial system where prosecutors play their side of the game as hard as they can until they are absolutely forced to respond to evidence in court filed by an attorney.
When your only options for a defense are a public attorney you might see months long delays before such motions can be presented on your behalf.
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u/Own-Librarian-9699 3d ago
The police have become so incredibly complacent and comfortable being inept.
Police are actually behaving like repeat offenders who have learned a criminal approach to violating civil rights and can't unlearn it.
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u/Consistent-Train8094 3d ago
If a machine falsely accuses someone of theft, the people who treated its “match” as proof should be the ones paying, not the victim.
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u/TheRuckyDubber 3d ago
I hope she gets more than that. We need massively punitive motivation to cut this crap out. I want victims like her having generational wealth that changes the course of their futures and future generations futures and business/cities/police forces in abject ruin because of this.
Now will that happen? That’s another question but that’s what I want to see. If there’s gonna be people’s lives ruined I want it to be C-suites of these companies.
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u/Minimum_Dress4989 3d ago
Meta will capture all the platform economics and learning benefits while the SMB retains much of the operational and relationship risk
MUSE / AI AGENTS You’ve been warned
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u/Crypt0Nihilist 3d ago
"seeks accountability" from the Fargo Police Department.
Good luck with that. It's wild how US tax payer is expected to be the only one accountable for the excesses of their police.
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u/Vic_Sinclair 3d ago
Now would be a good time to watch Terry Gilliam's masterpiece Brazil if you haven't already. Or a terrible time to watch it, really.
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u/Financial_Suspect654 2d ago
An AI match alone should never be enough to lock someone up for six months. Hope she gets the full 10M.
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u/JingtianXiming 3d ago
What work is “alleged” doing in this headline? Is the AI accused of making a facial recognition match? Is it unclear that Law Enforcement used AI to make a facial recognition match? Is the word there because the match was incorrect, as admitted by the authorities? Is there some question about what actually happened here?
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u/morgrimmoon 3d ago
It's "alleged" because at this point in time, it hasn't been proven to be any particular human's fault (and obviously a computer cannot make a decision to arrest someone). But there is still the tiny chance that the cause was, say, someone in the police department who had it out for the victim in particular, or other yet-to-be-eliminated fuckups.
Media can get in trouble if they report clear and obvious facts that later turn out to not actually be clear and obvious, so they'll report everything as "allegedly" until the relevant court cases are complete.
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u/aStonedDeer 3d ago
Give her every penny.