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New York Is Quietly Rolling Out Precrime Surveillance Tech

Editor's Comment
Last year, I wrote about New York City’s efforts to create an advanced “precrime” surveillance state combining aspects of the Robocop and Terminator movie franchises. This article provides an update on some of the advances the city has made since my article was written. – Jesse Smith
by Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net

Picture this: it’s rush hour in New York City. A guy in a Mets cap mutters to himself on the F train platform, pacing in tight circles. Nearby, a woman checks her phone five times in ten seconds. Overhead, cameras are watching. Behind the cameras? A machine. And behind that machine? An army of bureaucrats who’ve convinced themselves that bad vibes are now a crime category.

Welcome to the MTA’s shiny new plan for keeping you safe: an AI surveillance system designed to detect “irrational or concerning conduct” before anything happens. Not after a crime. Not even during. Before. The sort of thing that, in less tech-horny times, might’ve been called “having a bad day.”

MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper, the man standing between us and a future where talking to yourself means a visit from the NYPD, is calling it “predictive prevention.”

“AI is the future,” Kemper assured the MTA’s safety committee. Read Full Article >

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Growing the Surveillance State: Drones, Facial Recognition, AI Enlisted to Fight Crime but at What Cost?

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