Thu Sep 19 06:16:32 UTC 2024: ## AI Comes to the Rescue: Can Technology Help Solve India’s Missing Children Crisis?

**New Delhi:** An innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) is offering hope in the fight against India’s alarming missing children crisis. Sahid S.K., an AI artist and co-founder of Megalodon, has teamed up with Rajasthan police to use AI to recreate old, faded photos of missing children, imagining how they would look today. This technology helps families identify their children years after they disappeared.

Sahid, inspired by the possibility of reuniting families, utilizes AI tools and age-progression technology to reconstruct faces, giving families a crucial visual aid in the search. The effort highlights the growing potential of AI in solving real-world problems, particularly in the fight against human trafficking and child abduction.

The scale of the issue is staggering: India sees an average of six children go missing every hour. According to the National Crime Record Bureau, over 2,000 girls go missing daily, with reported cases rising from 66,000 in 2018 to over 85,000 in 2022. Experts estimate that millions more go missing each year, with vulnerable children often falling prey to traffickers and predators at railway stations.

This isn’t the first time AI has been used to combat crime in India. Earlier this year, Delhi police used AI to reconstruct the face of a deceased victim, leading to the identification of the killer. These examples show the potential of AI to not only solve crimes but also potentially prevent them.

The article emphasizes that the use of AI for finding missing children is still in its early stages and needs to be expanded. It highlights initiatives in the US and Canada where AI is being utilized at a national level to locate missing children.

The author, Pankaj Mishra, calls for a larger scale application of AI technology in India, urging top AI researchers to focus on developing a national-level solution to the missing children crisis.

The article concludes with a call to action, inviting individuals and organizations with the expertise and resources to join the effort in reuniting missing children with their families.

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