AI Japanese railway stations deploy AI to prevent suicide attempts

Hm, sounds as if this system could be used for much more than just suicide prevention...

Around 40 railway stations and commercial facilities across Japan have introduced an artificial intelligence system designed to prevent suicides, with the developer saying the technology has already helped save at least two lives. The system was developed by Tokyo-based Asilla Inc. It analyses behaviour captured by security cameras at stations and buildings and assesses the likelihood that someone may attempt to jump to their death.



According to the company, the AI looks for patterns such as pacing, standing for long periods near the edge of a station platform, or lingering on rooftops and other elevated areas. When the system detects behaviour it considers suspicious, it sends alerts to station staff and security guards. In some locations, warnings are also broadcast over loudspeakers.

In one instance, the system detected a man in an area that customers do not enter at a commercial facility and a guard approached him. The man later said he had intended to kill himself by jumping, according to the company. In another case, a child was found lingering for a long time near a railing on an upper floor of a facility, and a security guard discovered the child had been writing a suicide note, it said. Asilla has worked with around 200 commercial facilities and other entities since 2022 to train the AI system on around 7 million pieces of security camera footage, enabling it to detect not just suicidal signs but instances of illness and immobility as well as violence.

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Asilla's AI system has been introduced at about 30 commercial facilities and around 10 stations in Tokyo and the neighbouring Kanagawa Prefecture.