Chinese Man With a ‘Super Brain’ is Now Helping the Police Fight Crime

A Chinese man who was able to out-think an advanced AI on a reality television show is now using his exceptional mental skills to help police solve crimes by uncovering clues in investigations.

The Weifang police force in China’s Shandong Province reportedly recruited Wang Yuheng, 35, after his special ability caught their attention in December of last year.

South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese man’s superhuman observational talents have already helped solve a hit-and-run case that police had spent eight months trying to figure out. He decoded “hidden clues” from surveillance footage, which led to the successful arrest of a suspect on March 15. His thorough analysis filled in missing details of the profile for the driver as well as the model of the car. The driver was believed to be a local, middle-aged man who drove while under the influence.

Wang’s mental abilities came into public prominence after emerging victorious in the battle of wits against a tough super computer in the reality show “Super Brain” back in February 2015. The competition tested humans’ capabilities against that of artificial intelligence in memory and facial recognition tests.

In one of the challenges of the competition, Wang Yuheng’s photographic memory allowed him to correctly recognize a specific glass of water out of 520 nearly identical samples. His opponent is a facial recognition AI named “Mark,” who is said to have a facial recognition success rate of 99.50%, according to its developer Megvii.

Wang’s abilities have proven to be useful to enforcement. He is currently assisting the authorities on a robbery case.

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