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UGA Professor explores how AI may impact abuse investigations in foster care system

About 11,000 children in Georgia are in state custody, otherwise known as foster care, because their homes were deemed to be unsafe by the state’s Division of Family and Children Services.

Daniel Gibbs is an assistant professor in the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work, where he studies how decisions are made in foster care systems.

In a recent study completed in the western United States, he explored how the implementation of artificial intelligence tools effects whether foster care systems investigate allegations of abuse. To date, no artificial intelligence algorithms have been implemented in the Georgia foster care system, but the expanding use of AI makes it possible.

Dr. Gibbs sat down with WUGA’s Emma Auer to discuss his work and its implications for US children in foster care. Here’s that conversation.