History of Surveillance in the United States
From Dred Scott to Abu Ghraib
If you are unaware of these names, let me jog your memory. Remember Dred Scott, the guy discriminated against in American citizenship, the famous 9/11 incident, and Guantanamo practices like Abu Ghraib. The U.S. has a deep connection with surveillance and AI surveillance. Tech backed with AI is useful and concerning at the same time, and America takes great pleasure in AI surveillance.
Catch and Revoke
Fast forward to today, AI surveillance is playing an important role in identifying immigrants and the country’s citizens. So if somebody tries to flee or elope from their native country, tools like AI facial recognition come in handy at the border or checkpoints. It can even use real-time profiling, which helps in maintaining the authenticity and safety of other citizens.
Authoritarian Drift in Democratic Societies
AI Surveillance in U.S. Cities
Cities like Chicago and New York are opting for AI surveillance by using an AI-integrated camera network to identify license plates, detect suspicious behavior, and even predict crime. On paper, it’s efficiency. But in practice, it’s constant monitoring of communities, particularly marginalized ones. Someone needs to constantly sit in front of the huge screen and must stay alert at all costs. As easy as it sounds, in reality, it’s not. But it will happen soon in the near future.
Concentration of Power Through AI-Enabled Policy
When cameras become the primary way of observation, and forecasting systems make all the decisions for none other than the citizens. That eats away the institutional checks, which results in less oversight, less accountability. Experts put it bluntly, “Automated law enforcement systems controlled by one or a few individuals can facilitate corruption and lawlessness.” But we all know how much people blindly trust machines and their judgment, even if it’s AI surveillance.
Globalization of AI Repression
China’s & Uyghur’s AI Surveillance System
China’s AI surveillance is the most valid example of facial recognition, biometrics, and phone tracking in Xinjiang, an all-encompassing system targeting Uyghurs and other minorities. Its reach, scale, and integration are bone-chilling. Chinese policies are quite strict when it comes to privacy and security.
AI Surveillance & International Spread
Countries like China, Russia, and the Middle East are currently engaged in the export of advanced AI surveillance technology. Export of the such technologies is spreading repressive norms, which ultimately normalizes authoritarian tactics in other nations beyond their borders. In the majority of instances, weak democracies tend to adopt such repressive tactics after civil disobedience, leading to further curtailing of individual liberties and human rights.
Ethical & AI Sovereignty Challenges
Cross-Border Surveillance Tension
Cross-border AI surveillance generates a multitude of complex jurisdictional issues that can become extremely messy. Data can be stored in a specific location, processed elsewhere, and enforced elsewhere still. This just essentially disregards the concept of national sovereignty, and it raises very serious questions regarding who is accountable and liable for breaches of human rights that occur.
Ethical Concerns In Transnational AI Surveillance
As reported by the Atlantic Council, the government is failing to keep up with AI surveillance ethics. The EU’s AI Act and Council guidelines conflict with more relaxed U.S. regulations and authoritarian standards. Their poorly coordinated standards undermine trust and create room for abuse of AI surveillance by risking the people’s data and increasing the risk for duplicate and false data in the source.
AI Surveillance vs Silencing
Predictive Policing & Censorship Through AI Surveillance
AI surveillance doesn’t just protect; it can also predict future crime possibilities, and the concerned people can use it to prevent future happenings. AI cameras can flag “anomalies” on the road, street, or even at homes. The AI surveillance systems not only track people but also forecast who is most likely to protest or offer dissenting views. Law enforcement is already watching people who are characterized as “anomalous” even before they commit something that can be termed protesting. All extensive fear easily suppresses protesting and free speech in a manner that other traditional forms of surveillance have never been in a position to accomplish.
Digital repression as a tool to control narrative
It’s scary once you know that someone is watching you at all times or that AI is surveilling you. You self-censor your own voice through online tracking or cell-phone mapping; effective AI surveillance isn’t seen, but it influences behavior, outlets, and even power. People tend to watch their words, steps, or even language in fear that others will use their words against them. AI surveillance might be helpful, but it has unlocked a new fear in people’s minds.
Safeguards & Responses
Need For Judicial Oversight
According to CIGI, several courts are starting to wake up and notice significant issues. Legal academics are calling for the need for an “anti-authoritarian” reading of the Fourth Amendment. This involves the need for human monitoring and intervention in the functioning of AI systems. It calls for the approach of subjecting the use of automated enforcement mechanisms to an appropriate degree of skepticism comparable to the skeptical examination we normally reserve for guaranteeless products.
Ethical frameworks & Transparency Demands
Many countries are enforcing AI ethics laws to protect their data as well as their people’s safety as a priority to mandate transparency guidelines in the contents, like publishing “AI usage reports” or institutional review reports. Things like this are gaining popularity, and appeals for more imposed human-in-the-loop for enforcement decisions rather than just AI doing the dead.
The Bottom Line
To conclude the whole thing in a nutshell, AI surveillance isn’t all bad at its core, but too much use of anything can be harmful. It refines the previous mistakes and mends the broken rules, but at a cost. It requires human supervision and a control room for maintaining transparency and safeguarding the public and the country’s data. Innovation with AI is fine as long as it’s under control; left unchecked, it’ll be hazardous.
Until we meet next, scroll!
