The Global Trafficking Intelligence Hub is an initiative of the USC Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems (AICS) group. At AICS, we conduct interdisciplinary research at the frontier of AI and complex systems, in domains ranging from healthcare and e-commerce to social good applications like fighting human trafficking.

We've studied many complex systems at scale (from patent networks to campaign finance), but human trafficking remains the single most complex system we have studied. We've been involved in this project since 2016, starting with funding that we received under the DARPA Memex program. Therein, we build artificial intelligence systems and knowledge graphs (such as our flagship domain-specific insight graphs system) that were transitioned by DARPA to over 200 law enforcement agencies in the US, and in conjunction with other systems, used to prosecute traffickers and rescue actual victims of trafficking.

Our research on trafficking from both the AI perspective and the complex systems perspective has been published and presented across prestigious peer-reviewed academic venues, covered in general press and contributed to initiatives like the Computing Research Association's initiative on Applying AI in the Fight Against Modern Slavery and a 2019 Concordia roundtable summit on fighting child trafficking, co-held with the UN General Assembly in New York City.