Identifying high-risk suicide cases

Social Media Giant, Fcebook, has created an Airtificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm that monitors people that may be contemplating to commit suicide.

This initiative is coming at the backdrop of allegations that Social networks have been providing a forum for those planning to commit suicide, with a number of people livestreaming their suicide attempts

The AI looks out for typical patterns in social media posts that mark out a potential suicide.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Facebook Product Manager, Vanessa Callison-Burch said that “the AI is actually more accurate than the reports that we get from people that are flagged as suicide and self-injury.”

When the algorithm spots worrying patterns, it flags them to community managers. The community managers can then further investigate and reach out proactively to users it believes to be at high risk. In cases it considers less urgent, it will prompt friends to contact the person concerned with a pre-written message to make it easier to start a conversation.

Online counselling

To tackle the live video streaming of suicide attempts, Facebook has also launched a new tool for friends to report videos that concern them. Once notified, Facebook will make prevention resources available on screen so the Facebook Live broadcaster can live-chat to a counselling line, for example. The company has partnered with a number of counselling and self-help organisations to provide support. In addition, resources will also be offered to the person who reported the video so they can intervene as well.

Facebook has faced criticism that it has opted to let Live videos continue to run, which the company has said it does in order to give friends or family a chance to intervene.

AI offers the potential to detect and support those in trouble before it is too late.

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