Report: Seattle using AI to route certain 911 calls -- without caller knowledge or public review [View all]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/report-seattle-using-ai-to-route-certain-911-calls-without-caller-knowledge-or-public-review/ar-AA25HfJ6

Report: Seattle using AI to route certain 911 calls — without caller knowledge or public review

Story by Kurt Schlosser
Full story at Seattle Times
June 21, 2026

The Seattle Fire Department has been quietly using artificial intelligence to help triage and divert 911 medical calls for more than two years — without telling the public — The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

Denmark-based Corti‘s AI has been listening to all Seattle 911 medical calls and prompting dispatchers to route certain patients to a nurse-staffed Texas call center rather than send an ambulance, the Times found. The system has operated without public disclosure or formal review.

SFD started using the live AI prompts in December 2023, and the department’s medical director credited the technology with driving an increase in calls routed to the nurse line — though the exact figure was disputed. The system was never assessed under Seattle’s surveillance ordinance, which requires review of technologies that observe individuals in ways likely to raise social justice concerns.

The nurse line has drawn scrutiny after a 2022 case in which a retiree waited more than 10 hours for an ambulance and was later found dead in her apartment; her estate is now suing.

… more … The practice is spreading across Washington state, with Snohomish and Kitsap counties recently deploying AI agents on non-emergency lines and the Tri-Cities area …

(So does the nurse in Texas follow Texas law or Washington law? In regards to women’s health, trans rights, etc.?)

(Not to mention privacy concerns, data mining, hippa, etc.)

(Someone sold this to the city. Who and for how much? Follow the money as always.)

(Calling Du lawyers and techies on this. Thanks.)