This large-scale and invasive AI-enabled surveillance of public spaces is not legal, necessary or proportionate to the legitimate aim of providing security. History shows us that this is the latest tool used by governments to invade the privacy of citizens and stifle freedom of movement and expression.
Each series explores technology that feels just one step ahead of reality. In the era of AI, it feels more and more timely. Ben does a lot of research and we have advisers who inform us about the latest developments. Not just from the Met and counter-terror but military consultants as well. They're banks of information and a lot more open than you'd expect because it's all off the record.
Since the start of 2025, at least 30 cities have canceled their contracts with Flock Safety, the AI surveillance company whose CEO wants to end all crime within the decade by blanketing the country in ever-watchful security cameras. That startling figure comes courtesy of NPR, which reports that concerned activists are putting mounting pressure on cities to cut ties with the company. "We are seeing a lot more momentum," Will Freeman, a Colorado-based organizer who runs the website DeFlock.org, told the broadcaster.
The whole thing unraveled quickly, according to local reporting. When the alert went out, it triggered an automatic "code red," giving administrators no choice but to react to the AI system's decision. Luckily nobody was hurt, and local police soon declared the lockdown over. "The code red was a precaution and the children were never in any danger," local police wrote in a Facebook post.
For the past few decades, Alex Karp has stayed largely under the radar, but a new biography, reveals him to be a complex, thoughtful, often contradictory personality, with a background that explains many of his insecurities. Steve Rose profiled the fitness-obsessed billionaire tech leader whose business is at the heart of many governments, including the US, where its AI-powered data-analysis technology is fuelling the deportations being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Pentagon's unmanned drone programme, police departments' (allegedly racist) profiling of potential criminals and much more besides.
In 2025, Trump administration officials-primarily at the Departments of State and Homeland Security-created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program has surveilled the social media accounts of visa holders and lawful permanent residents...
