An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls

A US telecom company, Securus Technologies, has developed an AI model trained on prison phone calls to detect planned crimes in real-time conversations, texts, and emails of inmates. The AI tools are used to monitor and flag suspicious activities for further investigation by human agents. While the company claims the AI has helped disrupt criminal activities like human trafficking, concerns have been raised about the ethics of using inmates' conversations to train AI without their explicit consent. Additionally, there are debates over the funding of such AI surveillance tools, with recent FCC rulings allowing companies like Securus to pass security costs onto inmates.