Forensic artist says AI can’t replace much of what she does

A sketch by Michigan State Police Trooper Alyson Sieminski of a homicide and assault suspect from the Upper Peninsula. (Michigan State Police)

LANSING – As new technologies emerge, surveillance and cameras remain the State Police Forensic Art Unit’s biggest “competitor,” and one artist says the use of artificial intelligence for forensic art might create public mistrust by trying to be pleasing to the eye instead of following the evidence.

“AI stuff is meant to be more aesthetically pleasing – it’s not meant to be accurate,” said Alyson Sieminski, a state trooper assigned to the Gladstone Post in the Upper Peninsula.

Sieminski is one of the six forensic artists in the department’s Forensic Art Unit.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever going to be able to replace actual people drawing this st