GoKawiil
Tech News
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.
Education writer Benjamin Riley's reporting alleges that Alpha School, a $75,000-a-year private school network marketed around AI tutoring, has students monitored via laptop webcams and heart-rate monitors, with wrong answers reviewed on Zoom calls by workers reportedly based in India rather than by AI systems. Former students describe feeling surveilled like lab subjects, and academic Matt Seybold has linked the practice to what he calls AI's 'Mechanical Turk problem,' where human labor from the Global South stands in for automated systems.
Flock Safety told Senator Josh Hawley it has replaced an open text field for justifying camera-database searches with a drop-down menu based on FBI crime categories. By year's end, law enforcement will also need to log a case number before searching, though the requirement can be waived in emergencies. The changes come as Hawley investigates the company and after a Senate hearing examined misuse concerns, including a case where a Florida woman spent 13 days jailed based on a camera match.
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.
Meta unveiled Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses at its Connect 2026 event, a version of its smart glasses line that includes Meta AI and open-ear audio but omits a camera entirely. The glasses come in two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, and weigh from 43 grams, lighter than Meta's camera-equipped models.
Flock Safety announced changes to its automated license-plate-reading system after facing scrutiny from lawmakers in Congress. The company shortened its default data-retention period from 30 days to seven, introduced standardized categories for why searches are conducted, and will now require officers to enter case numbers before running a search.
MIT Technology Review reports that smart glasses are enabling covert recording, non-consensual image sharing and police surveillance in India, with experts warning such incidents will grow as the devices go mainstream. Separately, the outlet cites University of Pennsylvania finance professor Jessica Wachter's analysis showing hyperscalers are on track to spend nearly $1.1 trillion on AI data centers through 2027, requiring extraordinary earnings growth to break even by 2030.
Springfield, Missouri's city council voted 5-3 on Monday to route a resolution reviewing police use of Flock Automatic License Plate Readers to a planning committee rather than allow public comment. Attendees who had gathered to speak reacted with shouting and protest as they left the meeting, and councilman Brandon Jenson criticized the process for denying residents a chance to be heard.
Researchers analyzed geolocated outbreak data for 32 environmentally linked emerging infectious diseases, combining these with global datasets on socio-environmental factors such as land use, climate and biodiversity. Using disease-specific driver hypotheses developed with experts across virology, ecology and public health, they built geospatial statistical models to identify common human-caused patterns behind where outbreaks occur.
An investigation by MIT Technology Review documents hundreds of migrant deaths in areas monitored by the government's decades-long, multibillion-dollar network of border surveillance towers, including newer AI-equipped installations meant to automatically detect people crossing. In many cases, the towers neither led to rescue nor apprehension of those who later died in the surrounding terrain. The findings were discussed in a roundtable featuring editor in chief Mat Honan with reporters James O'Donnell and Eileen Guo.
404 Media is asking residents nationwide to submit public records showing how local police departments use Axon's automatic license plate reader cameras, which many cities are adopting after backlash over Flock's role in ICE lookups and a Texas officer's search related to a self-managed abortion. The outlet has already gathered Axon 'activity reports' from six police agencies detailing which officers searched plate data, their badge numbers, and stated justifications, but wants more submissions to map usage nationwide.
Flock Safety, the maker of AI-powered license plate scanning cameras, has begun offering employees a voluntary severance package as public backlash against its surveillance technology intensifies. The program, which started taking applications Friday, includes months of health coverage and extended stock option windows, with decisions expected by October 9 and departures by October 29.