Facebook Launches Suicide Patrol, Uses AI For ‘Proactive Detection’

It would seem that Facebook’s growing influence on the world has also made it a hotspot for those who post suicidal thoughts for people to see. Several instances of actual suicide and even murder were broadcasted via the platform’s live streaming service, which has alarmed governments all over the world. Now, Facebook is using artificial intelligence to patrol the site and identify suicidal users.

The AI’s function is quite straightforward. It will basically scan the whole social network to identify posts with signs of suicidal thoughts or users outright posting that they are thinking about killing themselves, TechCrunch reports. Once the posts are discovered, the users are then sent mental health resources if there’s a need for it.

If not the users, the friends and families of the users will be notified to potentially prompt them to offer help. If those options are not available, first-responders in the local area will also be contacted.

This new measure will also apparently be applied to the global user base of Facebook, except those in the EU. The AI basically acts as a spying software after all, which European countries take issue with.

As to what kinds of posts or comments would prompt the AI to flag users as potentially suicidal people, phrases such as “Are you okay?” and “Can I help?” will be top priorities, The Washington Post reports.

The social network has actually been testing this protocol in the U.S. for quite some time. Only now is it applying the software to the rest of the world.

The hope is that by identifying people who are showing suicidal thoughts, the rate of suicide can be reduced. This will especially be advantageous to Facebook since being involved in the death of a user who clearly had been considering suicide via posts on the platform would be bad press for the social network.