“How AI cops are ALREADY patrolling Britain’s streets” reads a Daily Mail headline from June 15th 2024.
It’s been clear to anyone who’s paying attention that the United Kingdom slipped over the threshold to George Orwell’s “1984” some years back. And at this stage it certainly looks like the country’s authorities are on a mission to see just how far they can push the British population the legendary English patience reaches its end.
And while the stated reasons for the massive increase in privacy-intrusive public surveillance is of course the ever predictable “public safety,” as well as “watching for known criminals,” there’s a darker side to this” Big Brother technology which few seem to realize.
As the use of AI in police surveillance increases, so does the reliance on it to actively “predict crimes.” If that sounds familiar, it’s probably due to the 2002 Tom Cruise Blockbuster “Minority Report,” which depicts a dystopian society where police will arrest you because you’re about to commit a crime, rather than because you already did so.
To say that this trend of arbitrary authoritarian surveillance and AI-use in daily life is deeply disturbing, is a gross understatement.