AI and surveillance capitalism are undermining democracy
7 hours ago
- #Data Privacy
- #AI Surveillance
- #Democracy Threat
- The State Department launched 'Catch and Revoke,' an AI-driven social media surveillance program targeting student visa holders for alleged terrorist sympathies.
- AI's predictive capabilities fuel a cycle of surveillance and power abuses, threatening democratic values by blurring private and public data boundaries.
- Historically, humans have sought behavior prediction methods, from oracles to statistics, with AI now decontextualizing and supercharging these efforts.
- AI-driven surveillance homogenizes individuality, placing people into behavioral groups, which contradicts democratic ideals of originality and freedom.
- Data collected for benign purposes often becomes weaponized, exemplified by cases like menstrual trackers post-Dobbs and ICE's use of private medical data.
- Surveillance capitalism thrives on AI's demand for data, creating a one-way ratchet where data collection and monetization feed into further surveillance.
- The bipartisan desire for surveillance reflects a power dynamic, not party politics, with governments and corporations exploiting data for control.
- Effective AI use requires restrictive controls, akin to nuclear energy regulations, to prevent societal harm and protect democratic freedoms.
- AI's ability to de-anonymize data undermines existing privacy protections like HIPAA, making previously unlinkable data personally identifiable.