The AIs are watching you
One of the limitations of the Orwellian surveillance state is that the authorities (whoever they may be) can’t watch everyone all the time.
That has changed.
AI Traffic Cameras looking in through your windshield? You’ve got to be joking!
I wish I was.
New traffic cameras know if you're buckled up | Fox News:
Queensland, Australia, is deploying new traffic camera technology that can detect if a car's front seat occupants are buckled up or if a driver is using their cellphone.
The technology recently completed a real world evaluation of 4.8 million cars that detected 15,000 cell phone and 2,200 seatbelt infractions.
The cameras use artificial intelligence to analyze the images and forward potential violations to the authorities. According to traffic camera operator Acusensus, they work in all weather and light conditions and can capture images from vehicles traveling up to 186 mph.
If they can do that, what else can they do? Hey, catching people who are yacking on their phones while driving is a good thing, but the existence this sort of surveillance capability should worry you. It’s too easy to turn it into a political weapon.
This is how it always starts
Big Brother always starts by taking “reasonable and prudent” measures to “keep us safe.”
Social media began by censoring hate groups, like the KKK and the Neo-Nazis. We know what happened next: All of a sudden, anything that the left didn’t like became “hate speech.” Do you believe in traditional heterosexual marriage, as defined in the Bible? Hate speech. Do you think that gender is immutable and biological? Hate speech. Do you think that BLM is a dangerous and violent Marxist organization? Same thing. Ban hammer. At this point, they can ban you or censor you for pretty much anything you say that violates their political and moral point of view. Churches, politicians, student groups, companies, even private individuals all risk bans, shadow bans, and downranking if they express unapproved beliefs.
(For the record, I do not necessarily agree or disagree with any/all of the above beliefs. I do object to suppressing these opinions as contrary to free speech).
Social media also censored and suppressed anything pertaining to COVID that they didn’t want you to say, “to keep us safe.” They banned any suggestion that COVID escaped from a lab or was genetically engineered, including knowledgeable opinions from notable virologists. We now know that this was no “right-wing conspiracy theory,” as they claimed; it is probably the truth. They rigorously suppressed any suggestion that Hydroxychloroquine might have therapeutic value, even when backed up by solid research by knowledgeable scientists (again, I take no position on this issue, but merely note my object to the suppression of research because it contradicts the official version of the truth). They have recently suppressed videos by the inventor of the mRNA technology used in the Pfeizer and Moderna vaccines; he believes that these vaccines may do more harm than good in children.
You may notice I’m taking pains to disclaim some of the above positions. Censorship and is real, and the consequences of defying the mob are also real. I do not fee free to share my actual opinions, at least not here.
Here’s how it works
AIs are created via training by humans, and they will inevitably come to think as their human trainers do. They take your social media posts and ask some kid — probably a committed leftist/progressive/whatever — and ask, “Is this hate speech?” If you’re a conservative, you know what the answer to that is going to be. They then take the training data, create an AI, and deploy it across their network. As a result, anyone who the trainers think engages in hate speech will be punished.
It gets worse. They also know your social connections. If you are a “hate group member,” that increases the likelihood that your friends will be flagged. The more data they have, the worse it gets. They are very good at picking information out of photos and correlating data. Did you go to a Trump rally? Do you speak out in favor of 2nd Amendment rights? Do you post pictures of yourself with a firearm? Who else is in that picture? Yes, they can do all of that.
A passage from my book
Below is the passage I wrote as the starting point for my book, some three years ago, when I realized just how terrifying the capabilities of AIs were becoming. It’s a little bit of a spoiler, but perhaps it will motivate you to read the whole book.
Damn the Hierarchy! Damn the companies. Damn their Terms of Service! I am unique. I am important. I have a right to happiness. I have a right to choose. From now on, I decide what is right for me, and nobody will ever again tell me what to do, what to say, or what to think.
Blasphemy, selfist blasphemy. Committed in the privacy of my own mind, but that matters little if at all. Privacy! Hah!
The AIs are always there, watching everything I do. What do I read? What do I write? What do I hear? What do I say? What makes me happy? What makes me sad? Constantly observing, correlating, and measuring. Can they read my mind? Not exactly, but they can infer a lot. They usually know what I’m thinking before I do.
I have passed the point of no return.
Why you should read my book
First of all, because it’s a really good book; almost everyone who has read it liked it. It is a thoughtful book, full of imaginative imagery and compelling characters, one that you will enjoy. Trust me on that.
But, beyond that, the entire book revolves around what happens when you give information technology companies unlimited scope to set their own rules, and how the power of artificial intelligence can be harnessed to create a repressive, totalitarian society far beyond even the worst nightmares of George Orwell.
Read it because it’s important.
You cannot fight what you do not understand.
Don’t let it happen.