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The linked article discusses the development, and dare I say, movement, towards AI, as in Artificial Intelligence, talking about in cameras. And most concerning, that they might sense the intent of the person viewed, to determine that they might be prepared to do something. Why would I suggest that this is concerning? Well, didn’t you guys see the movie?
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/
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The Tom Cruise movie! Come on people, let’s keep up here. Some years back, actually quite a few years back, Tom Cruise starred in the movie “Minority Report.”
In that futuristic sci-fi movie, Tom Cruise is the police…IDK, officer(?) who combats crime with the use of a government managed Artificial Intelligence system. The AI computer uses algorithms…and stuff, to discern who, what, when and where a crime will occur at a future point. And then Tom Cruise type people are dispatched to stop the future crime before it happens. Got that! Simple enough, right! A person that might otherwise be, at that moment, not a criminal, gets arrested or stopped, before becoming a criminal. Based on their divined intent to commit their first crime.
Naturally, as these movie things tend to do, something goes wrong. Tom then must resolve the, life as we know it, threat to humanity that this AI system presents. He does, lives are saved and the world continues to rotate around the sun and all is well in the neighborhood.
Well, how do we in the current free world feel about that? Some mad scientists somewhere are currently developing and deploying AI enabled and controlled cars. And there are even more independently moving and controlled objects in the works. Objects of individual and mass service, by-in-large. And yes, we have drone aircraft, though often monitored by a human at some level, operating in places around the world, supposedly saving the world as we know it.
And now Camera’s! Oh my! Examples you ask?
Alexa listens to us when we are not speaking to it. Siri, along with Alexa (Echo) and Google Assistant can listen to us and do things we ask of them. And perhaps listen when they are not being asked. And listen in anticipation of us asking them something! See my previous several posts about Alexa as a reference.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Assistant
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We are in a Surveillance era.
We are moving to a Surveillance Society. There are cameras watching and listening across the vastness of the public world. For the most part, this is a good thing, done for the good of society. Cameras watch our driving roads for safety. Cameras watch our shared public spaces for crime prevention. Cameras watch us as we move to local and global transportation (airports, etc.). And cameras are in the hands of most everyone in our tech-savvy society. Which is pretty much to say, all society today. With the abundance of watchers and recorders today, how much privacy do we currently have? And how much of a lesser degree will we have as more and more modes of surveillance are introduced?
Wait, you thought I had the answer!
Nope, I have no idea. Do I favor cameras in our transportation locations, trains, boats, planes, “Et al,” yes I do! Safety and security are important to our survival. Information is important to us. These systems and devices are a part of the information collection and retrieval process. We are in many ways smarter because of these systems. We have significantly greater and faster access to knowledge with them.
But can we overreach in our move to be smarter and faster? And here is a word for ya, Omniscient, all-knowing? Like that, big word usage, cause I am a smart guy. With the help of Google!
Again, I don’t have the answer, do you?
Let’s talk.