Facebook Algorithm Saves Mumbai Man Attempting Suicide

When everything seems to have failed, artificial intelligence has turned out to be helpful in saving a human life. Facebook’s algorithm to prevent suicide and self-harm has saved a person in Mumbai who had nearly killed himself by slashing his neck live of Facebook.

According to police, the person has been identified as 23-year-old Dnyaneshwar Patil. He went on Facebook live on January 3 and started slashing his neck with a sharp object. The Mumbai police cyber cell and the Dhule police successfully saved his life.

In the live video, the man was seen speaking Marathi and saying that he was going to commit suicide because of 4 persons who were responsible for harassing him.  “Me aaj suicide kartoy. He lok jababdar ahet (I am committing suicide today. These people are responsible).” He then takes the names of four people and says, “He mala khoop traas detayat aani me ata marnaar ahe. He bagha rakta, (They are harassing me and I am going to die. See, blood).” He then slashes his throat five times. 

Facebook’s algorithm – after seeing blood in the video – alerted the headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, which further informed the Mumbai police cybercrime cell after which the man was traced within an hour.

After tracing him, the Dhule police reached the spot at around 9 pm and found the person lying on the floor unconscious and bleeding heavily. 

He was rushed to hospital and now he is out of danger. 

He revealed that he had consumed liquor after being bullied by his friends and wanted to end his life. 

His mother is a Home Guard in Dhule.

This algorithm, which helped Mumbai police immensely, was launched by Facebook in 2017 to prevent suicides and self-harm through artificial intelligence. 

The suicide prevention algorithm scans people’s posts for potential suicide risk. The algorithm sees and analyses almost every post on Facebook.