{
  "id": 327456,
  "title": "How an AI research tool helped challenge support for police violence in Brazil",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/22/how-an-ai-research-tool-helped-challenge-support-for-police-violence",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-07-22T15:10:57.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Global Voices Brazil",
    "slug": "global-voices-brazil",
    "url": "https://globalvoices.org/2026/07/22/how-an-ai-research-tool-helped-challenge-support-for-police-violence-in-brazil/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the summer of 2025, two organizations - Instituto Fogo Cruzado, a leading civil society monitor of armed violence in Brazil, and Future Narratives Lab, a UK-based research organization - were finalizing a study on messaging surrounding police violence in favelas. This study came at a particularly grim time, as just days prior, a single police raid in Rio de Janeiro resulted in the deaths of 122 people, marking it as the deadliest policing operation in Brazil's history. Despite this shocking figure, polls conducted afterward revealed that the public continued to support such actions. Brazil, known for having one of the highest intentional violent death rates in the world, has long struggled with the issue of widespread public support for state violence. This support, often rooted in misconceptions, has contributed to a pervasive sense of fear, fatalism, and desensitisation among citizens. To challenge these narratives and understand what truly drives public opinion, the two organizations sought to utilize an AI research tool. This tool, developed by Future Narratives Lab, would enable smaller, grassroots organizations to gain insights into their target audiences' beliefs and reasoning, a task that typically requires expensive and time-consuming traditional research methods. By employing this AI Interviewer tool, Instituto Fogo Cruzado and Future Narratives Lab aimed to uncover the underlying beliefs of individuals who supported increased police violence as a means to combat crime. The tool conducted personalized, structured conversations with participants via a chatbot interface, probing for inconsistencies and deeper reasoning. Targeted at a specific demographic - Christian individuals without higher education and from low-income households - the interviews aimed to reveal the factors influencing public support for police violence. As the tool engaged in these in-depth conversations, it consistently began with the question, \"What comes to mind when you hear 'violence' in Brazil?\" Participants' responses varied, ranging from personal experiences to broader associations with violence. The tool then probed further, asking about the responsibility for reducing crime and presenting official data on decreasing homicide rates to gauge participants' reactions. Many expressed surprise or disbelief upon hearing this data, which the tool further explored to understand the reasoning behind their initial disbelief. Through these structured but adaptive conversations, the AI Interviewer aimed to uncover the nuanced beliefs and concerns that underpinned public support for police violence, providing valuable insights for developing effective counter-narratives and messaging strategies.",
  "summary": "In 2023, Brazil recorded 45,747 intentional violent deaths — among the highest rates in the world. Like many democracies, the country has long grappled with the issue of large-scale public support for state violence.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}