A recent Seattle Times article investigating the Seattle Fire Department’s use of AI has drawn questions from the community, including multiple Tech Policy Lab leaders.

SFD has engaged in a partnership with Corti, a Denmark-based AI technology company, to help dispatchers decide which calls need a rapid response and which can be routed to a nurse-staffed call center.

A major concern lies in the fact that the use of AI wasn’t disclosed, said Co-Director Ryan Calo.

“The potential that this company could be a part of the experience that Seattle 911 callers have and they don’t know it, that raises serious concerns. I’m troubled on a number of levels.”

The oversight, or lack thereof, and failure to fully inform the public strikes Faculty Associate Jevan Hutson as a foundational issue.

“I don’t think I’m categorically against the idea of using AI” for 911 calls, said
Hutson, who also directs UW’s Technology Law and Public Policy Clinic. “But the governance needs to match the stakes here, and the governance is not matching the stakes.”

Another issue is the lack of success metrics or information about outcomes. Without much public information, it’s hard to assess whether callers are better off, said Faculty Associate Franziska Roesner, who also co-directs the UW Security and Privacy Research Lab.

“It’s not clear this is a bad thing, but it’s also not clear that it’s a good thing,” Roesner said. “I think we need to know a lot more.”

Read the full article here: Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls