How I Solved a Crime Using AI

Yes, another post about AI, but I promise this one will be a little different from the hundreds you've read over the past few weeks. I would like to share a personal account of how I used AI to solve a crime last week.

Last December, while I was at lunch, someone broke into my office and stole $1000 in cash that I had just withdrawn from the bank for an upcoming trip to Argentina. I was able to obtain some video footage and photos of the intruder. I won't go into the details of the story, but if you're interested, you can read more in the link I shared in the comments on the Nextdoor social network.

Last week, an acquaintance posted a video on a social network asking if anyone could identify a man who broke into his office and stole $15,000 in checks (link to this video in the comments below) . To my surprise, I recognized the guy as he was wearing the same clothes he used in my break-in. I immediately called him and we exchanged photos and information about the robbery, putting us in touch with the detectives handling both cases.

But this is where it gets interesting, because using the photos I had from my burglary and the new ones shared by my friend, I decided to run a test using AI. I used a website called Pimeyes.com that uses AI to recognize faces. It's a highly controversial website, but it works!

After uploading the pictures, Pimeyes returned the public photo of the man who matched the faces in the pictures. I then used Google's reverse image search to see where the picture came from. It turned out to be a mugshot of a man who was arrested a few years ago for raping a mentally handicapped woman. He is a South Florida resident with a criminal record. I passed on his name and information to the officer handling the case, the guy now is the prime suspect for the case and probably going to be arrested soon.

Elementary, my dear Watson.