Once upon a time, we used to read things called books. They are delightful little tomes of words that tell us great stories. Some are real, some are fake, but most of them are good (notable exceptions being books like A Handmaid’s Tale and also anything by Ayn Rand).
Some books tell fake stories but have real messages we can learn from. Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of book burnings in a dystopian future, where information is tightly controlled. Another is 1984, a delightfully cheerful book about an oppressive nanny state that watches every little thing you do or say.
Every so often, someone in the real world comes along and proposes something that makes us stop and say “Not today, Big Brother,” in reference to 1984, because what they’re proposing is an increase in the size and scope of an overbearing nanny state.
As I said, it is a cheerful read.
But those are usually proposals that are small, incremental steps toward Big Brother and the government monitoring our every move. On rare occasion, someone comes out and offers a total switch to complete servitude to an oppressive technostate. In today’s case, it’s the co-founder of Oracle, tech billionaire Larry Ellison.
On Thursday, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison shared his vision for an AI-powered surveillance future during a company financial meeting, reports Business Insider. During an investor Q&A, Ellison described a world where artificial intelligence systems would constantly monitor citizens through an extensive network of cameras and drones, stating this would ensure both police and citizens don’t break the law.
Ellison, who briefly became the world’s second-wealthiest person last week when his net worth surpassed Jeff Bezos’ for a short time, outlined a scenario where AI models would analyze footage from security cameras, police body cams, doorbell cameras, and vehicle dash cams.
“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,” Ellison said, describing what he sees as the benefits from automated oversight from AI and automated alerts for when crime takes place. “We’re going to have supervision,” he continued. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person.”
I would like to tell you that this is some sort of joke, but Ellison truly believes that this is the next step in law enforcement and threat neutralization: Artificial Intelligence monitoring everything we do from every possible angle and using every available camera.
To be fair, AI has been generally hit or miss since it really started blowing up in the last year or so. People using it for content creation are getting weird results, and those using it for surveillance (like schools that have increased security in the wake of high-profile shootings) are seeing some odd things trigger warnings.
We’re still a ways off from the future Ellison is discussing, but it’s also a worrying future, one I hope our politicians are wary of and are prepared to fight should it cross the line into dystopian science fiction.
