Since taking front row seats at Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, Big Tech companies led by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and others have accumulated more profits and political power than they have ever before enjoyed. However, as Big Tech has sought to impose AI technology onto U.S. communities, often without consent, masses of Americans have risen to challenge AI data…
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Republicans and Democrats in Congress have introduced competing legislation to rein in the government’s use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers (ALPRs) following widespread abuses by police and intense public backlash to the powerful surveillance technology. ALPRs allow police to track vehicles and their drivers across expansive areas by using a variety of easily…
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Police in cities across the U.S. are rolling out a pro-drone PR blitz as hundreds of local police departments prepare to deploy autonomous, AI-driven surveillance drones. The drones are capable of following a single vehicle across an entire city, capturing footage through apartment windows, and generally recording daily life from the sky without being noticed. As of February, more than 1,000…
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Sam Altman, the embattled CEO of the AI technology company OpenAI, vacillates between warning of a labor market doom loop due to the technology his company developed and promising a new golden era for humanity just around the corner. In an essay posted to his X account this July, he claimed that “by safely stewarding AGI [artificial general intelligence] into the world, we can enter a new…
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When residents of Madison County, North Carolina, sought to speak about the county’s AI surveillance cameras at a recent Madison County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Michael Garrison’s response was simple: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” A clip capturing Garrison’s move to prevent public comment soon went viral, resonating with others waging similar battles in their communities.
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Civil rights attorneys say a recent Supreme Court ruling in a landmark digital privacy case could put “wind in the sails” of local organizers challenging police deployment of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). However, those organizers in cities large and small still face both a powerful industry and police departments determined to outfit their forces with the latest tech. It will take more…
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