HEBER CITY, Utah — An artificial intelligence that writes police reports had some explaining to do earlier this month after it claimed a Heber City officer had shape-shifted into a frog.
However, the truth behind that so-called magical transformation is simple.
"The body cam software and the AI report writing software picked up on the movie that was playing in the background, which happened to be 'The Princess and the Frog,'" Sgt. Keel told FOX 13 News. “That’s when we learned the importance of correcting these AI-generated reports.”
Earlier this month, the department began testing two pieces of AI software, Draft One and Code Four. Code Four was created by George Cheng and Dylan Nguyen, both 19 years old and MIT dropouts, kicked off earlier this year. The software generates police reports from body camera footage in hopes of reducing paperwork and allowing officers to be out in the field more.
Draft One was the software used to create the Disney-inspired police report.
To see how Code Four works, FOX 13 News rode along with Keel for a demonstration as the department staged a mock traffic stop.
"Hi, I'm Rick with the Heber PD. The reason I'm stopping you today is for..." Keel said during the demonstration.
Back at the police department, the AI generated a report with timestamps from the mock traffic stop. The software works in both English and Spanish and can track tone and sentiment as people are talking.
Keel says one of the major draws is that the software saves them time, as writing reports typically takes 1-2 hours.
"I'm saving myself about 6-8 hours weekly now," Keel said. "I'm not the most tech-savvy person, so it's very user-friendly."
Code Four costs about $30 per officer each month. Keel said the trial run for Code Four wraps up next month, but department officials say they plan to continue using the AI technology; it's just a matter of which system.