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Digital Planet: AI chatbot takes witness statements

Factual: Science & Nature

AI Chatbot

23/03/2021 GMT

AI chatbot takes witness statements

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, AI chatbot takes witness statements

AI chatbot takes witness statements more efficiently than humans

AI chatbot takes witness statements. Also, using machine learning to understand tinnitus and Shrouk El-Attar, the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year on the tech she designs.

Court cases can collapse due to unreliable witness statements. These are often taken some time after the crime has happened – but what if it was possible to take a witness statement very quickly using AI chatbots?  Dr Julia Shaw is on the programme discussing her latest research into using an AI chatbot in reporting harassment in the workplace.  Not only are statements taken more quickly, they are done better by a machine than a person, as people can interrupt, misinterpret, judge or incorrectly record statements.  The AI chatbot sticks to a script and allows the witness to do the same.

Machine learning to understand Tinnitus
AI is helping to advance research into tinnitus, a condition often described as a ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears, which affects up to 1 in 5 adults. Clinicians currently have no objective means of diagnosing tinnitus and must rely on the accounts of people living with the condition. But machine learning algorithms, combined with brain imaging techniques, are allowing scientists to develop a clinical tool to measure tinnitus objectively. Anthea Lacchia reports.

Women’s Engineering Society Prize
Shrouk El-Attar describes herself as an Electronics Engineer, a bellydancer, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and refugee. She is the winner of the WES Prize IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award, to add to a multitude of prizes she has already received. She’s helped design a pelvic floor trainer - a treatment for incontinence - and is redesigning the breast pump to allow women to express their milk much more easily and quietly. Gareth finds out what inspires her and more about the tech she designs.

The programme was presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Image: AI chatbot                        
Credit: tadamichi/iStock Getty Images                             

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz and Emil Petrie

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