2024 Press room
Here is a collection of press coverage of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.
Back to the Press RoomThe Ways AI Decides How Low-Income People Work, Live, Learn, and Survive
HRDAG is mentioned in the “child welfare (sometimes called “family policing”)” section: At least 72,000 low-income children are exposed to AI-related decision-making through government child welfare agencies’ use of AI to determine if they are likely to be neglected. As a result, these children experience heightened risk of being separated from their parents and placed in foster care.
Access the article off-site.Can We Harness AI To Fulfill The Promise Of Universal Human Rights?
The Human Rights Data Analysis Group employs AI to analyze data from conflict zones, identifying patterns of human rights abuses that might be overlooked. This assists international organizations in holding perpetrators accountable.
Access the article off-site.Families flock to Syria’s prisons looking for released inmates
According to the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, at least 17,723 people were killed in government custody from the start of the uprising in March 2011 to December 2015 – an average of 300 deaths each month. There are no figures for subsequent years but there is no reason to believe the killings stopped.
Access the article off-site.Syria’s celebrations muted by evidence of torture in Assad’s notorious prisons
The Human Rights Data Analysis Group, an independent scientific human rights organization based in San Francisco, has counted at least 17,723 people killed in Syrian custody from 2011 to 2015 — around 300 every week — almost certainly a vast undercount, it says.
Access the article off-site.Meet the data analyst putting the perpetrators of genocide in prison
Biotechniques published an interview with Patrick Ball, inspired by his John Maddox Prize award.
Access the article off-site.Want to know a police officer’s job history? There’s a new tool
NPR Illinois has covered the new National Police Index, created by HRDAG’s Tarak Shah, Ayyub Ibrahim of Innocence Project, and Sam Stecklow of Invisible Institute.
Access the article off-site.Gaza: Why is it so hard to establish the death toll?
HRDAG director of research Patrick Ball is quoted in this Nature article about how body counts are a crude measure of the war’s impact and more reliable estimates will take time to compile.
Access the article off-site.Police transparency expands with new national database — except Michigan
Tarak Shah is quoted with regard to the National Police Index: “Police often avoid accountability by moving to another agency rather than face discipline. This tool, allowing anyone to look up and track the histories of such officers, provides an invaluable service for the human rights community in our fight against impunity.”
Access the article off-site.Even if there’s a ceasefire, thousands of deaths projected in Gaza over next 6 months
In this NPR story, HRDAG’s Patrick Ball comments on first-of-its-kind projections.
Access the article off-site.War and Illness Could Kill 85,000 Gazans in 6 Months
HRDAG director of research Patrick Ball is quoted in this New York Times article about a paper that models death tolls in Gaza.
Access the article off-site.