It's almost impossible to determine how many serial killers are there out in the wilds.
Investing a case of a serial murder, is a lot different than the case of homicides. This is where technology can aid many things, including AI in getting deeper into the unknown minds. While the future of the world where serial killers are on the lose, is unknown, researchers have made machines to at least understand what investigators are dealing with.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can be taught, is revolutionizing how we see those predators.
In an academic conjunction with The History Channel, Kevin Knight, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. taught an AI to think like a killer by exposing it to all the information available about The Zodiac Killer.
Named CARMEL, it has developed the ability to think like a serial murderer.
Knight that is an expert in natural-language processing, explores the degree to which computers be made to understand and create human language.
After making CARMEL solve the Copiale Cipher (a handwritten manuscript from 18th-century Germany), the researchers used CARMEL to crack the Z340, the Zodiac Killer’s most impenetrable cipher. The cipher was made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where a self-named murderer terrorized Northern California with a succession of random killings and taunting police and the media with letters.
Four of those letters contained ciphers filled with a combination of letters and abstract symbols.
As part of Knight’s research into what computers can do with languages, CARMEL was fed with the letters' complex verses, and all the information that can be gathered about the killer.
The researchers had to set a few structural parameters, like for example the number of lines, word length, alliteration patterns. "You should’ve seen it before we took the curse words out," said Knight.
With the Zodiac Killer inside its brain, CARMEL developed the ability to produce poetry with nightmarish tinges.
At the age of love, a love deranged,
A beauty from romantic interest,
The thought of love, and love became estranged.
Then the words of love became obsessed.
Surrounded by the troubled, by the thieving,
Confused and bruised and poisoned by the master,
Confused and blinded by the helpless scheming,
Confused and blinded by the dreadful slander…
Another party started getting heavy.
And never had a little bit of Bobby,
Or something going by the name of Eddie,
And got a finger on the trigger sloppy.
Existence enters your entire nation.
A twisted mind reveals becoming manic,
An endless modern ending medication,
Another rotten soul becomes dynamic.
Or under pressure on genetic tests.
Surrounded by controlling my depression,
And only human torture never rests,
Or maybe you expect an easy lesson…
Mourning moaning mournful whispers weeping,
Together through the sleepless strangers slumber,
Alone and lonely lovers sleeping thieving,
A helpless dead forgotten former lover.
Through the taxi and the prison break,
Alone and angry at a brutal murder.
Surrounded by an artificial lake,
Never a convicted murderer…
AI in solving an old case, doesn't necessarily provide any actionable insight about the Zodiac Killer or any serial killers out there. But it's the potential of how AI can aid humans in investigations.
If investigators really do want to involve AI on their work, they should hunt those monsters by treating every data they have about serial killers seriously, although that the data is generated by some digital brains.
For internet users, there is an online tool published by Kevin Knight and his team, where they can pick a topic and CARMEL will come up with a short poem about said the topic. Users can play around with the number of lines, the number of curse words, and alliteration patterns.