The police of New Zealand will be the first virtual officer. What can he do?

Today, companies that provideany services, no need to hire employees to help customers find out information of interest or place an order. Virtual assistants are perfectly suited for this. They ask leading questions and gradually solve the problem. You must have seen such assistants in online stores and websites of various companies. What can I say, right now you can take a smartphone and ask a question of interest to Google’s voice assistant or Alice from Yandex - they will immediately find the answer on the Internet. Approximately such an assistant will appear on February 17 at a police station in New Zealand and welcome visitors, help with paperwork and prompt emergency numbers. Some people are unlikely to be surprised at this innovation, but this assistant has a number of interesting features.

The appearance of virtual assistant Ella

About the New Zealand Police Virtual Officertold The Next Web. The assistant will be displayed on a special screen installed in the lobby of the national police headquarters. He is a female character named Ella, who knows how to talk with visitors to the police station using specially trained artificial intelligence. At first, she will only be able to perform a basic set of functions, such as greetings and assistance in obtaining passes. But if within three months Ella proves her benefit, her capabilities will be expanded.

Virtual policeman with artificial intelligence

According to Police Commissioner Mike Bush, onAt the initial stage of work, artificial intelligence will be tested for effectiveness in helping visitors. If the site employees are convinced of its benefits, the artificial intelligence responsible for its work will be trained to perform other tasks. There is hope that thanks to her help, work on incoming tasks will be significantly accelerated and the site will not need to hire new employees.

In the future, a virtual assistant may appear in Police Connect street devices to communicate with the police

The most interesting fact about the police assistantElla is that the animation of her face and the tone of the voice were created by specialists from Soul Machines. Its founder is Mark Sagar (Mark Sagar), who previously was a member of Sony Pictures Imageworks and participated in the creation of animation of digital characters in such films as "Avatar", "King Kong" and "Spider-Man". You can see the quality of the digital characters created by his company in the video below.

It’s probably clear to everyone that virtuala policeman is not intended to patrol cities. Most likely, in the future it will be built into Police Connect devices, which are gradually being installed on the streets of New Zealand. They are designed so that people can contact the police station at any time to solve any problems.

What do you think of virtual assistant Ella? You can share your answer in the comments or in our Telegram chat.

Is there any benefit from virtual assistants inpolice, time will tell. In the meantime, in some countries robots roam the streets, which in the literal sense of the word monitor the order in the streets. You can get acquainted with them in our special material, in the framework of which we figured out their capabilities, varieties and even approximate cost. In general, if you want to know more about robotic law enforcement, we strongly recommend that you read the article.