Police Agency Sexual Crime Victim Counseling Chatbot That Doesn't Understand Requests... 'Useless'

Police Invest 260 Million Won, First Introduced This January
Unable to Answer Even Simple Questions
Contact Number for Disabled Persons Is "Nonexistent Number"

Since January of this year, the National Police Agency has introduced a chatbot for counseling victims of sexual crimes, but having a 'natural' conversation with the chatbot was difficult. Photo by National Police Agency Safe Dream Archive

"What should I do if I have been sexually harassed?"

"Could you please explain it more simply one more time?"

The Sexual Crime Victim Counseling Chatbot introduced by the National Police Agency in January this year is not functioning properly. When asked, "I was sexually harassed by my workplace superior. Should I report it to the local police station?" the chatbot replied, "I did not understand the question. Could you please say it differently?"

It failed to answer even simple questions. It could not provide a proper response to the question, "I was sexually assaulted." However, if the counselor started a conversation with the chatbot, they could receive answers by clicking on predetermined questions.

Also, although a contact number was provided in case of chatbot malfunction, when an actual call was attempted, it came up as a 'non-existent number.' After this report began, on the afternoon of the 28th, the police stated, "This issue occurred due to a change in the person in charge and has been resolved." The updated contact number is now listed on the relevant website.

Since January of this year, the National Police Agency has introduced a chatbot for counseling victims of sexual crimes, but there have been shortcomings in its operation. When the chatbot malfunctioned, the contact number sometimes appeared as a "nonexistent number," but the contact information was changed after our investigation began. Photo by National Police Agency Safetydream Archive

The introduction of the National Police Agency’s Sexual Crime Victim Counseling Chatbot was a project pursued by the Research and Development Office of the National Police Agency from 2018 to 2020 with a budget of 265 million KRW. According to Professor Lee Junhwan’s team at Seoul National University, who designed the chatbot, they developed it based on the insight that sexual crime victims often do not report incidents due to social stigma compared to other crimes. It is known to be designed so that victims can freely talk with the chatbot and, when connected to specific parts of a predetermined scenario, receive necessary information.

A National Police Agency official stated that although free speech functions were considered during the design process, the chatbot was ultimately introduced with the purpose of providing information. Referring to the ‘Iruda’ chatbot, which caused controversy in 2020 due to inappropriate sexual remarks, the official said, "If free speech functions are included, there is a risk of providing incorrect information or causing secondary harm," and added, "We plan to continue updating it toward information provision, such as collecting case law."

A representative from Saltlux, responsible for developing the chatbot, said, "The National Police Agency’s Sexual Crime Victim Counseling Chatbot is planned to be integrated with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s National Secretary service, and currently provides limited functions according to the National Police Agency’s requirements," and added, "The free speech function was implemented as a counseling aid during research and development but is planned to be included in the service through future advancements."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.