Dayton's city council voted on August 25 to suspend Flock's license plate reader program amid privacy concerns, and the city told Flock on September 18 that no work orders should proceed. Despite this, Flock submitted a work order on September 17 and later reinstalled two cameras without city authorization, prompting Dayton's local government to post on Facebook on September 29 confirming residents had spotted the cameras and that police were ordered to remove them.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-29
A commentary piece highlights the 1970 film Colossus: The Forbin Project, adapted from D.F. Jones' 1966 novel, in which a US president hands control of national defence to an AI supercomputer that gradually seizes total power. The writer argues the obscure film's plot, including surveillance, executions and the creator's own moral failings, closely mirrors current debates about AI and government.
thanksforthatjim.bearblog.dev
· 2026-10-23
Court documents from a legal dispute between Amazon and a Canadian union reveal the company uses an internal AI system called Atlas to assign warehouses, including ones in the UK, a risk score for potential unionisation or other labour disruptions. The tool reportedly analyses hundreds of data points, including social media posts, internal survey responses and past industrial action, to produce a score between 100 and 900, with higher scores considered 'better' for management.
opendemocracy.net
· 2026-10-17
Pennsylvania-based startup Mosqitter, which makes chemical-free mosquito traps that mimic human heat, scent and breath, says it now has more than 5,000 devices deployed across five continents, up from roughly 250 in 2022. CEO Anastasiia Romanova told TechCrunch the company is turning these traps into an AI-powered monitoring network designed to identify mosquito species, track population changes and provide earlier warnings of disease risk.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-14
Flock Safety, maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras and license-plate readers used by police departments, is reportedly cutting several hundred jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. The layoffs come as the company faces mounting criticism over privacy concerns tied to its surveillance technology.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-10
MIT has installed hundreds of small camera units across campus over the summer, including more than 500 documented by The Tech, with some positioned near faculty offices and bathroom entrances. At the May 2026 Institute Faculty Meeting, administrators acknowledged testing AI-based search capabilities from Ambient.ai on campus footage without prior notice or consent from the community.
fnl.mit.edu
· 2026-09-25
The Senate Judiciary crime and counterterrorism subcommittee held a hearing on AI-powered surveillance networks, with Flock singled out by chair Josh Hawley as the industry's most prominent player. CEOs of Flock, Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada all declined to testify; instead the panel heard from cybersecurity experts, a sheriff who cancelled his department's Flock contract, and a Florida woman who says she spent 13 days jailed after her car was misidentified by Flock's cameras.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-24
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has frozen further state spending on Flock's AI-powered license plate cameras, a decision made shortly before a Texas Tribune investigation exposed that the state had already spent over $30 million on the technology. That funding came largely from a $1 fee added to insurance policies, ostensibly to combat catalytic converter theft.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-30
Designer Simon Weckert created a garishly patterned Hawaiian shirt intended to make wearers invisible to AI-powered surveillance systems. The pink, orange and green shapes are engineered to disrupt an algorithm's ability to recognize a human outline, effectively blinding detection software while appearing as an eye-catching print to people. Weckert used an AI-driven trial-and-error process, called an adversarial loop, to develop the disruptive pattern.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-26
At a San Diego City Council budget meeting, DJ and activist Anthony Ralphs appeared as Darth Vader to satirize the city's renewed contract with surveillance firm Flock Safety, delivering a mock endorsement praising the technology's ability to track 'rebel scum.' The stunt, filmed and shared online, went viral across TikTok and Instagram, reaching millions of viewers. Ralphs, who has spent roughly a year opposing the San Diego Police Department's use of Flock's tools, later revealed his identity behind the mask to take credit for the performance.
wired.com
· 2026-08-25
Flock Safety's network of AI-powered surveillance cameras has expanded rapidly across US cities and towns, but communities from both political sides are now organizing against it. Critics cite privacy concerns, lack of oversight, and fears about how police and other agencies use the collected data.
wsj.com
· 2026-08-25
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley used a Fox News interview to urge critics to find a middle ground between privacy and public safety, as opposition to his company's AI camera network intensifies. The remarks follow a Washington Post investigation that uncovered dozens of cases of police misusing Flock's surveillance tools, including to track women, prompting Langley to issue a public apology earlier this month.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-24
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