Director’s Post.
RAD Lab Director Lachlan Urquhart co-organised a Roundtable event with Diana Miranda of the University of Stirling, and RAD Lab researchers Irene Connon and Alex Laffer on 23rd March 2023. The roundtable brought together representatives from government, policing, regulators, and academics to discuss the near future implications of biometric AI technology in law enforcement in Scotland. Through a series of three innovative design fictions, the team were able to contextualise the use of technologies like DNA phenotyping, emotion sensing, and live automated facial recognition. The Twine based storytelling approach was useful in enabling reflection and discussion on a wide range of legal, social, technical and ethical aspects of using such systems in different contexts of policing. To follow up on this roundtable, there will be a report released that documents the fictions, the systematic literature review which underpins many of the tensions and state of the art explored in the fictions, and a summary of key discussion points from the afternoon. Also, a graphic recorder, the Floating Designer, was in attendance and they have provided some wonderful images from the discussions below. For any further information, please contact Dr Lachlan Urquhart or Dr Diana Miranda.