GoKawiilFacepalm: For a short while, Google's AI Overviews handed the internet a financial case for vandalizing Flock's AI-powered license plate cameras, and it wasn't based on anything real. Google has since walked the answer back, but the incident is a clean example of how quickly a widely used AI tool can turn a joke into something that looks like fact.
The story starts with a meme: privacy advocates joking online that Flock's surveillance cameras are secretly loaded with valuable metals, worth cracking open for scrap. AI Overviews took the joke literally, and for a while, told anyone who asked exactly that.
Until recently, anyone searching "how much gold does a Flock camera have" saw a confident answer: a "Flock safety camera contains about 1 to 5 grams of gold used in its internal circuit boards and wiring," plus between two and 23 pounds of copper.
Taken literally, that put roughly $650 worth of gold, and an implausible amount of copper, inside a device that weighs just three pounds. The figures didn't match what engineers would expect from this kind of compact electronics, and of course weren't backed by teardown data or materials analysis.
Image credit: Futurism
After the discrepancy was reported, Google appears to have updated the answer. The AI answer now pushes back directly, telling searchers that claims of a single unit holding pounds of recoverable copper are false since the whole housing weighs about three pounds, and that any gold present is only in trace amounts typical of small consumer electronics.
Some users saw this new language, too: "A Flock safety camera only contains trace amounts of gold in its standard electronic circuit boards, similar to most common small electronics. Rumors claiming the cameras are packed with large amounts of valuable precious metals – like ounces or grams of recoverable gold – come from internet memes and AI hallucinations, not facts."
Flock's cameras sit at the center of a growing AI surveillance network. The units use cameras and machine learning models to capture license plate images, translate them into machine-readable text, and feed that data into searchable databases used by police and private customers.
The process is automated end to end: the system scans passing vehicles, runs the plates through recognition software, and surfaces hits in seconds. Those capabilities – continuous data capture, AI-based identification, and fast search across large datasets – have made Flock a focal point in debates over how far automated monitoring should go, especially as reports emerge of officers using the system for unauthorized checks on romantic partners.
The technology has also become a lightning rod because it reflects where modern security tools are headed: networked cameras, automated recognition, and large, queryable datasets about everyday movement.
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