Briefs

December 17, 2002: A.I. Cop on the Beat. By Alexandra Robbins. PC Magazine.

Coplink, an artificial-intelligence-driven search engine for crime characteristics, scans multiple databases for connections among names, vehicles, physical descriptions, and other aspects of a crime or criminal. Developed by Hsinchun Chen, director of the University of Arizona Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Coplink began in 1997. Five years later, Chen has deployed Coplink at six agencies and is developing an information-sharing and analysis program with the CIA.

When a federal agency sought a man wanted in a firearms-related incident two years ago, it hit roadblocks. The informant knew no names -- only that the criminal's sister, who lived in Tucson, Arizona, had an abusive boyfriend.

In a series of searches, officials combed hundreds of case files until they found a woman involved in a domestic-violence case who was also linked to a man of similar age with the same last name. And they nabbed the criminal. This should have taken at least a month. It took 25 minutes. It was one of Coplink's earliest successes.

Here is the full story from PC Magazine.