A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Good morning.
It’s going to feel a bit more like summer today, with temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s across the state, partly sunny skies and gentle winds.
Rockland has joined the growing number of Maine towns and cities where police use artificial intelligence to churn out reports based on an officer’s body-camera footage. The software is meant to generate faster, more detailed reports, cutting down on time-consuming paperwork.
But civil rights groups, researchers and even prosecutors have raised concerns about the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated police reports. In Utah, an AI “hallucinated” that an officer shape-shifted into a frog, because audio from the movie “The Princess and the Frog” got picked up on a body camera.
Companies behind this AI software say there are safeguards in place to prevent erroneous information from making it into a final report, including requiring sometimes time-consuming edits before a report can be published. In the case of our shape-shifting amphibious crimefighter, the police department caught the error and publicized it to show the importance of having a human review these AI-generated documents.
It’s not just police whose use of AI is raising eyebrows.
In Kentucky, a middle school sent students home with an “educational” packet lousy with AI-generated errors, including a map with numerous misspelled states, such as Mane (Maine), Taxas (Texas), Venecky (Kentucky), Lookoong (Louisiana) and Vitoiis (Illinois). That packet also included a periodic table featuring non-existent elements and others that defied the known laws of physics (magnesium was given a negative atomic mass), among many, many other errors.
While students were presented with misinformation about how our great state is spelled, at least they weren’t told we’re a Canadian province!
Inside Troy Jackson’s warp-speed Senate campaign hiring spree
If you’re regularly exposed to any advertising, you could be forgiven for thinking that Troy Jackson has been facing off against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins for several years now.
In fact, it’s been only a few weeks since the former Maine Senate president went from losing a tightly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary to becoming his party’s pick to beat one of the most powerful U.S. senators in the country.
Bangor Daily News politics reporter Benjamin Kail talked to people familiar with Jackson’s campaign about how he built a team in short order, enlisting old and new allies, and even former opponents.
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From the Opinion Page
“When you are making $18 an hour taking out trash, you should not have to worry about a needle stick that means months of testing and anxiety.”
Opinion: Safe disposal containers can protect workers from being stuck by a syringe on the job