“Future Wake” (www.futurewake.com) is an interactive website that scrutinizes the present state of predictive policing with a specific focus on forecasting police brutality. Awarded the Mozilla 2021 Creative Media Award, the project leverages Artificial Intelligence to scrutinize data regarding fatal police encounters in the U.S., aiming to foresee future incidents. It generates computer-simulated avatars that represent composite victims, narrating each of their stories. By presenting potential future victims to its audience, “Future Wake” provokes critical thought about the efficacy and ethics of predictive policing. It challenges viewers to ponder the true meaning of societal safety, how it is defined, and importantly, who is marginalized or overlooked within these systems.
