“Oppression is revealed with satellites and AI”

“war Crimes, environmental degradation and illegal house demolitions.”

“With the help of new technology, revealed human rights violations that previously remained in obscurity.”

“– We must use all the tools available, ” says Fred Abrahams at Human Rights Watch.”

“Drönarbilderna from the war in Syria is now well-known. On Youtube, they are there in the hundreds. Such a film from Aleppo, one of Syria’s most war-torn cities, shows what can best be described as a skeleton of a city. Where visible, the houses without facades, streets inundated by water-filled bomb craters, grushögar that once constituted flats and everywhere holes; in the satellite dishes, walls, and ceiling.”

“this type of movies and images, from drones and from the satellites, is also used to investigate the crimes committed in conflicts such as in Syria. A war in which Fred Abrahams at Human Rights Watch (HRW), an expert on the use of technology to detect and investigate crimes against human rights, call for the first ”

“– There are hundreds of thousands of movies and pictures from the war in Syria. With the help of more developed artificial intelligence (AI) had we been able to analyze even larger amounts of videos and pictures to be able to investigate crimes. There is a huge potential.”

“Among other things,” says Fred Abrahams, can AI be used to detect the use of illicit weapons in conflict. By teaching a computer to analyze and automatically detect, for example, an explosion from a cluster bomb, only by looking at the pictures from the satellites, time-consuming processes are automated and streamlined. Such methods will become even more valuable in the future when the technology has evolved, think of Abraham.”

“Just that the AI has satellites and drones total changed the playing field. Areas where HRW had not been able to get in, because of political or security obstacles, is now available over the air.”

“– With the help of them we can examine the war zones, environmental degradation and illegal house demolitions. In a case in Turkmenistan, we could, by comparing satellite images at different times, to see how it had destroyed a variety of residential buildings to make room for a major sporting event.”

“It is not only at the conflicts and wars, as technology improves the ability to detect the violation of human rights. Peace of Abraham, tells how, through the analysis of the data could reveal that people in residential care homes in the USA was anesthetized down with heavy narcotic drugs, instead of getting the care they were entitled to.”

“– By looking at the common, open data, and about where the narcotic drugs ended up, we saw that excessive amounts went to homes for the elderly. Then we had to make the usual investigations on site in order to understand what it was that happened.”

“Peace of Abraham, chat for a long time and be happy about all of the benefits that the new technology means, but the best is if the technology is combined with traditional investigative work, he stresses.”

“– To be on site, interviewing people face-to-face, to find the relevant documentation in order to build a strong evidence, we will continue to proceed with. The strongest evidence we get when we succeed in combining analog tools with digital.”

“And the technology must be used responsibly,” he points out. The personal integrity must never naggas in the edge and the technology should not be used carelessly – it is possible to access the information in a different manner, it is preferable.”

“– AI means a unique and fundamental risk, and it can be incredibly dangerous. But at the same time, the technology can be used to do good. It is important to remember that technology in itself is neutral.”

“Human Rights Watch is an independent international human rights organisation that investigates and reveals the violations of human rights.”

“the HRW was founded in 1978 with the name Helsinki Watch, then with the purpose to investigate human rights abuses in the countries which signed the Helsinki declaration, with a focus on those who remained behind the iron curtain.”

“In the 1980s, was founded in systerorganisationerna Americas Watch, Asia Watch and Middle East Watch. In 1988, they gathered all under the name Human Rights Watch.”