AI & Machine Learning

NORA’s next version will integrate Generative AI and Machine Learning to transform child abuse reporting.

Generative AI & Machine Learning in NORA

NORA will leverage Generative AI (Gen AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to transform non-urgent child abuse reporting, ensuring reports are structured, objective, and actionable while reducing the burden on child protection agencies.

By integrating structured AI outputs, NORA will streamline reporting workflows for child safety hotlines, starting in Oklahoma, and expand nationally.

How AI & ML Will Improve Child Safety Reporting

Every year, millions of reports are submitted to child protection agencies, many of which are unstructured, incomplete, or subjective. Investigators must sift through these reports, often under intense time constraints, increasing the risk of delayed or misprioritized cases.

NORA will address this challenge by interpreting, summarizing, and triaging unstructured reports, ensuring that critical details are retained while reducing the time required for processing.

Oklahoma: Use Case

In Oklahoma alone, child safety hotlines process over 84,000 reports annually, with 60% (50,531 reports) qualifying as non-urgent. With AI-powered automation, NORA will:

• Reduce report processing time by 50%, cutting review times from 60 minutes to 30 minutes per case.

• Save approximately $9.72 per referral, based on Oklahoma’s $19.43 average processing cost.

• Increase staff capacity, allowing intake workers to process 16 reports per shift instead of 8.

• Free up 25,266 labor hours, leading to an estimated $491,164 in labor savings annually.

By integrating AI-driven assessment and summarization, NORA will increase efficiency while maintaining report integrity, allowing investigators to focus on urgent cases while ensuring non-urgent cases receive structured, comprehensive attention.

AI-Powered Processing with Google Gemini

NORA will use Google Gemini to power its natural language processing and structured data analysis. This model was selected for its:

• Advanced contextual understanding to accurately interpret and summarize complex, unstructured reports.

• High token capacity to handle detailed case narratives without truncation or loss of context.

• Seamless Google Cloud integration for efficiency, security, and scalability.

• Alignment with Google’s AI Principles to ensure fairness, transparency, and responsible AI deployment.

• Real-time text generation to enhance reporting clarity and streamline processing.

Ensuring Responsible AI Implementation

Mitigating AI-Generated Errors

AI-generated summaries must be accurate and reliable, as incorrect or incomplete reports could misrepresent critical details. To ensure quality and accountability, NORA will:

• Include chat logs alongside AI-generated summaries to provide context for staff.

• Require technician approval before submission during early rollout.

• Allow reporters to review and edit AI-generated summaries before submission.

• Implement confidence scoring to flag low-confidence reports for human review.

• Conduct regular audits, gather feedback, and apply automated quality checks to detect missing critical details.

Bias Mitigation & Ethical AI Development

To ensure fair and ethical AI decision-making, NORA will:

• Collaborate with diverse child welfare experts and community advisors to ensure assessments remain focused solely on safety concerns, avoiding subjective judgments.

• Filter out speculation by guiding reporters through structured follow-up questions that emphasize objective details.

• Clearly document how contextual factors—such as poverty, protective capacities, and risk indicators—are considered without reinforcing systemic biases.

• Apply robust data governance and continuous human oversight to refine AI behavior and eliminate unintended biases over time.

NORA’s AI-driven processes will be developed in alignment with Google’s AI Principles, ensuring that efficiency never compromises fairness, security, or ethical responsibility.

By integrating AI and ML responsibly, NORA will set a new standard for child safety reporting, making investigations faster, more effective, and more equitable.