A Denmark-based company’s AI technology has been listening to Seattle residents’ 911 medical calls without their knowledge for the past two years, according to the Seattle Times.

The Seattle Fire Department has been using the company’s AI to help dispatchers decide which callers don’t deserve a rapid response.

Corti’s technology is prompting the dispatchers to route certain 911 patients to a nurse-staffed Texas call center, rather than send them ambulances right away. It’s analyzing what patients are saying and, in some cases, nudging the dispatchers with pop-up alerts.

This has happened without any disclosure to callers and without any public review, the Fire Department confirmed in late May, two months after The Seattle Times started asking about the topic.

Fire officials can’t explain how they’re measuring the technology’s success or what their current contracts with Corti look like, further leaving residents in the dark. But they wouldn't lie to us, would they?

“The potential that this company could be a part of the experience that Seattle 911 callers have and they don’t know it, that raises serious concerns,” said Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor and co-director of the university’s Tech Policy Lab. “I’m troubled on a number of levels.”