It was timely to see a couple of articles on AI in last week’s Echo. AI is in action in our Shire, and impacting us by stealth when used by the state government.
We may think it has nothing to do with us, but think again. A week ago, I received an infringement notice from the NSW government and fined for a passenger not wearing a seatbelt appropriately.
It cost $423 and three demerit points, and there was no evidence provided.
I was the passenger, my husband was driving, but the car is registered in my name.
Now this came as a shock, as wearing seatbelts is second nature to us, and I knew I would not have been on the highway or road without a seatbelt on.
We went to the website and found the photos.
They are assessed by AI and AI couldn’t see the belt across my body as both photos are overexposed black and white images lacking any detail.
In one photo, you can see the belt from the anchor point to my shoulder and across my lap, but across my body it fades into my clothes.
The other photo showed me with my hand up to my face covering the belt.
So we took more photos of me sitting in the car with my arm down and then up as in the highway photos and submitted an appeal.
I wore the same shirt to show that it is in the colour range, that in a poor black and white photo the belt and shirt would look the same.
Appealing isn’t easy, and involves scrolling through the website with care to find the link and then involves a series of pages to work through.
Each page begins with a demand that you pay the fine NOW. The website timed out three times as I went through the process and involved me having to create a PDF file with all the photos I was submitting as they couldn’t be submitted one at a time.
It took seven days to issue the fine, and you are given 30 days to pay, before you incur further penalties, but I received an email to say it would take up to 42 days for the appeal to be reviewed.
Meanwhile, appeals against these AI decisions are clogging up our court systems. It is a small-scale robodebt that we can all be hit with.
As an aside, seat belts aren’t actually designed for women, and can be dangerous for us.
The average crash dummy is based on a 5’10” 75kg flat-chested man. How do I know this? Google AI told me so.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
