LIVE: Polk County Sheriff's Office launches new lab to combat AI crimes

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (WFLA) — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announces a new partnership to help combat AI threats to the community.

Judd and Dr. Randy K. Avent, president of Florida Polytechnic University, discuss the Polk County Sheriff's Office's new artificial intelligence lab.

Judd began the press conference with an almost realistic video of Elon Musk praising the sheriff for his job and announcing that he would be moving to Polk County.

“Not a word of it is real,” the sheriff said. “No image in this video is real. It's a fake. Everything is created with AI, and we need to be able to tell the difference.

According to Judd, the criminal use of artificial intelligence is growing by the hour, which is why the sheriff's office is partnering with Florida Polytechnic University to use the same technology to fight back.

“Our mission is not to follow the future,” he said. “Our mission is to shape it. »

The goals of the initiative will be to develop legislation to help fight AI crimes against civilians if nothing is done to address them. The initiative will also research and educate others about the criminal use of AI, developing new tools to stop these crimes before they happen.

“We will prevent AI bad actors from invading your personal privacy space,” Judd said.