They want surveillance states to be the new normal
Source: Reuters
ICE plans to hire 30 contractors whose only job would be sifting through social media to find posts that could warrant deportation.
They’re looking for private vendors that will operate a multi-year surveillance program to scour Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms, using posts and profiles as leads on enforcement raids.
This is still in its nascent stage, but draft planning documents show that they want round-the-clock surveillance, constant case processing on tight deadlines and they wish to supply the agency with top-of-the-line surveillance software. There are plans to brainstorm how to incorporate AI into this process as well.
This post is about ICE, but ICE is a microcosm of what’s happening around the world. Our data is already being sold to the highest bidder, but Meta’s announcement some days ago about how they will use personal chats with their AI come December, and you can’t opt out, is another move in the trend of companies not caring for your privacy, and encroaching further and further upon your digital personal space, compromising your security.
Read: iRobot danger, Meta endangering privacy, and Nintendo’s Lego Game Boy
This isn’t a problem that’ll disappear anytime soon. Maybe it’s already too late to stop it in its tracks, but maybe we can stop it from getting any worse. Don’t conform to the new normal. Fight against it.
Ghost cities, ghost vehicles
Source: Reuters
In the Chinese city of Ordos, companies that make self-driving cars are having a field day testing out their creations.
Ordos never had a high population after the 2012 price crash, which saw more than 70% of properties being built left unfinished. Because of the region’s wealth of coal, there is a high demand for cargo logistics.
So now, over a dozen autonomous vehicle companies have moved in, offering their services in transportation while also testing out their autonomous crafts.
While this is the perfect environment to test out autonomous crafts safely, it doesn’t give any data on how well these vehicles perform in a densely populated urban environment.
On one hand, I’m glad they’re able to test these things safely, but I wouldn’t want these trucks to be on the same road as me if they haven’t been tested in a natural city.
Corporations and AI: a match made in cyber-heaven
Source: Google Gemini
AI seems to have found a permanent place in one area: corporations.
A study published in the journal Patterns found that in corporate and government bodies, as well as in corporate news publications, AI tools were regularly used to draft everything, from job postings to press releases.
Even the United Nations has been regularly drafting its content with AI over the past couple of years. The study found that the percentage of plausibly AI-generated text had climbed from 3.1% at the beginning of 2023 to 10.1% by the year’s third quarter, and peaked around 13.7% a year later.
The researchers found on LinkedIn that around 6-10% of the job postings they sampled had varying degrees of AI writing in it. They noted that smaller firms had more instances of AI usage than larger corporations.
While they say that AI usage has plateaued (at least for press releases) around 24.3% since December 2023, the fact remains that AI is rapidly filling up content in the digital space.
There will come a time when there simply won’t be anything left that isn’t AI-generated in some way. And it’s not going to happen in some far-off future; it’s happening now.
