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

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.

University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo, co-director of the university’s Tech Policy Lab, said the undisclosed AI involvement raises serious concerns.

“A person who is erroneously routed outside of the 911 environment has a right to know how it happened,” Calo told the Times.

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 launching a similar system, according to reports.

SFD Assistant Chief Chris Lombard said that dispatchers retain final authority over every call, even when they receive AI prompts. A spokesperson for Mayor Katie Wilson said the administration is developing a public-facing framework for AI governance and will assess whether existing uses “center human flourishing and serving the public good.”

Read the full story in The Seattle Times.