L’Artificial intelligence it is often accused of being a potential danger to jobs. While this is true, this technology can actually help many people improve their living conditions.
To confirm all this is an initiative by the Health Department of the county of The Angels, which is using an AI system to predict which people are at risk of losing their homes and then providing support to them. The service in question is not new, having been active since 2021 and having identified 800 people in serious economic difficulty. Once those at risk have been identified and helped, the86% of them managed to maintain their accommodation, avoiding becoming homeless.
The Los Angeles authorities’ project concerns an area severely affected by wild growth in rents. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in California alone there are more than 181.000 homeless (with an increase in 30,5% compared to 2007).
Los Angeles and homelessness: here’s the way to prevent the loss of your home
The project in question was developed by California Policy Labpart of the research institute ofUniversity of California. This is mainly committed to solving the problem of homelessness. The AI in question works through anonymized dataexamining all county residents and identifying potentially critical situations.
Furthermore, given the excellent response, the counties of Saint Clare e San Diego they are evaluating the adoption of this system to save as many people as possible from the streets.
As confirmed by Janie Rountreeexecutive director of the California Policy Lab, this AI-powered platform is provided to the county for free and will not be monetized in any way in the foreseeable future.
Nonetheless, like many other AI contexts, there are controversies related to privacy. Although the data is anonymized, according to the CBNC it is still easy to identify the individuals linked to them.