A grandmother in Tennessee has spent nearly six months in jail after AI facial recognition software falsely linked her to a bank fraud case.
Angela Lipps, 50, was arrested last July when police in North Dakota used an artificial intelligence tool to identify her in bank surveillance video as a woman who had used a fake military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars.
A police detective then cross refenced the image with Ms Lipps’ social media accounts and driver license photo, though did not identify her in person.
Officers from North Dakota only met with her after she had already spent 108 days in county jail in Tennessee, according to local reports.
Following her arrest, Ms Lipps was charged with four counts of unauthorised use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft, WDAY News reported.
The case was eventually dismissed on Christmas Eve after her bank records showed her to be more than 1,200 miles away during the time the bank fraud offences were committed.
She was forced to spend Christmas in a hotel room after North Dakota police refused to cover her travel expenses back to her home in Tennessee.
“I had my summer clothes on, no coat, it was so cold outside, snow on the ground, scared, I wanted out but I didn’t know what I was going to do, how I was going to get home,” she said.
“I’m just glad it’s over. I’ll never go back to North Dakota.”
She told WDAY News that her time incarcerated had cost her her home, her car, and her dog, as she was unable to pay her bills from jail.
Police in North Dakota say the case is currently under investigation.
This is not the first time facial recognition software has led to wrongful arrest.
In January, a 26-year-old man in Southampton was arrested after an AI algorithm falsely matched him with footage of a suspect in a burglary 100 miles away.
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