When Russia wants to develop software to identify "dangerous" students

After the killing at Perm University, the Russian government wants to use artificial intelligence to spot potential future perpetrators of mass crimes.

REUTERS - MAKSIM KIMERLING

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

How to spot delinquent or murderous behavior of young people upstream?

In Russia, the government already has the answer and it is ready for the 2022 budget of the Ministry of Education, according to the daily " 

Vedomosti

: software to identify potentially "

dangerous

"

students

from their writings. 

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With our correspondent in Moscow,

Anissa El Jabri

The

shooting at Perm University

last week or the one in a Kazan school last May that left nine people dead, including seven students.

Two news items that traumatized Russia.

Two acts committed by young people who seemed ordinary.

Enough to justify, in any case according to the government, the use of major means: artificial intelligence to prevent "

socially dangerous and destructive behavior

".

Risks

To develop a future software for monitoring and analyzing schoolchildren's texts, the sum provided for in the budget of the Ministry of Education is large: 1.7 billion rubles, or just over 20 million euros.

Childhood psychiatrists warn: writing at school is far from sufficient to draw conclusions, especially when the judgment is based on a simple algorithm.

In short, the result, they say, risks being imprecise and random with a high risk of cataloging a student who would then find himself ostracized.

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  • Russia

  • Youth

  • Criminality