With artificial intelligence popping up from the arts to education, Charlotte-area researchers are seeking solutions to public safety concerns through a new AI initiative.

After getting input from the community, researchers learned people are concerned with public safety, particularly when it comes to public transit. Thanks to a $2.5 million grant, a team from UNC Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College set up a pilot research project at the Merancas campus in Huntersville.

UNC Charlotte associate professor Hamed Tabkhi said he goes to the criminal justice building at the Merancas campus once a week. There, he meets with criminal justice students to study how artificial intelligence can recognize dangerous behavior before it escalates.

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Just like in the 2002 sci-film thriller, “Minority Report” starring Tom Cruise, technology allows police to apprehend criminals before they commit the crime.

“Right now, we have so many cameras everywhere, but they are passive,” Tabkhi told WCNC Charlotte anchor and reporter Jane Monreal. “They are not really being used in a proper way to identify potential criminal activities or public safety concerns.”

Faculty member Jeri Guido is also part of the team responsible for developing the technology that can detect certain anomalies.

“For instance, if someone’s in our parking lot, they trip and fall, that would send an anomaly alert to the app,” Guido explained. “The security person would look at it. They would know are they responding to a head injury or are they responding to someone who scuffed their knee. So, now we’re calling 911 before anyone is at the scene if we can see on camera if something’s wrong.”

Tabkhi also addressed ethical and social concerns using artificial intelligence in this way. Having simulated different anomalies, Tabkhi said their first step dealt with removing potential biases from the system, like racial profiling.

“It detects the human movements and behaviors, but then removes the pixelated information or actual information, replaces with color-coded information,” Tabkhi said.

The associate professor added that this AI isn’t designed to replace humans, but rather enhance our capabilities.

“It’s coming whether we want it or not,” Guido said. “But I think the way this has been developed, it’s quite scalable. And my hope is every school, every college campus hopes to keep students safe. If we can protect one student, I think we made a difference in the world.”

The group recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand their project. Tabkhi said while there’s still a lot of work to do to get a better understanding, rolling out on a bigger scale is just a few years away.