BEULAH — Benzie County 911 dispatchers are using artificial intelligence to help train for emergency calls, with a simulated system designed to recreate everything from medical emergencies to high-stress law enforcement scenarios.
The AI 911 system generates practice calls that allow trainees to make mistakes, learn and build confidence in what officials described as a safe environment.
Dispatch Director Corey Ellis said the idea came after he saw the technology demonstrated at a statewide public safety conference.
“I was really intrigued, we played around with it and it was quite amazing to see what the platform could do,” Ellis said.
Unlike real 911 calls, the system is simulated and not connected to live emergencies, Ellis said.
“We can practice any call that we can come up with and there’s no liability. It’s not a live call, we’re just practicing,” Ellis said.
The scenarios can be customized, including callers who are confused, angry or dealing with chaotic background noise, according to Deputy Director Racheal Wilson.
“We can choose from a selection that we’ve already done or that the company has selected, or we can completely create our own scenario,” Wilson said.
Wilson said each scenario can also add caller behaviors such as angry, scared or rude. The system grades each practice call using national standards, she said.
“It will evaluate every call that we process through it, and it uses national standards to grade that call. So, the same way that we provide quality assurance feedback to our staff currently with live calls, it uses that same process in the training environment,” Wilson said.
County officials said artificial intelligence is not being used on real 911 calls and is not planned for live use right now because of liability.