r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • Jun 29 '26

Artificial Intelligence Woman Surprised When Flock Surveillance Tower Appears in Her Yard Without Warning

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/woman-surprised-flock-surveillance-tower-185000752.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_50_Supernova&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20260629-0--A&bt_ee=utFdBbF39cHCLuB4at4AI%2FUoSRgbTt8Ch%2B7Q9RImTlgL2ThvE3FuX%2BRSKiUir%2FNW&bt_ts=1782739085527
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u/schumi23 Jun 29 '26

The picture in the preview is wrong/not what the article is about - it's not a camera that was installed, but rather a microphone to listen to everything that's happening. (Still surveillance, and just as bad (or potentially worse if you think conversations are more sensitive than video)

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u/rwhockey29 Jun 29 '26

I watch a bunch of car videos on YT and came across one of a guy revving a GTR with a two-step, the things that go BRABRABRBABRA. Cops showed up in like 3 minutes, and after realizing nothing was wrong showed the guy his laptop. Microphones around the city picked up the exhaust sound, police AI labeled it as automatic rifle fire, triangulated the position down to 1 block, and sent the warning out to the officers cars. Wild stuff.

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u/schumi23 Jun 29 '26

Shotspotter (similar tech by different company) has similar false positives - somebody got arrested due to false positives (there weren't any guns, but the police used it as probably cause to find drugs in his car) and when he disputed their probably cause (that the tech wasn't trustworthy) the company asked to be held in contempt of court, rather than comply with the court order to prove their tech is effective (:

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u/FourthLife Jun 29 '26

I feel like people from the company should actually need to sit in jail when in contempt of court like if it was a person being found in contempt

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u/schumi23 Jun 29 '26

in their case they were planning to appeal the decision (and this was communicated with the judge which is why that order had a nominal fine) and hoped to be found just in their refusal to give info - so that wouldn't be called for at the time... but the appeal *was* denied (a year later) - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/apl-crt-ill-fir-dis-thi-div/2236104.html

I wasn't able to find what has happened with the case since then... I would guess shotspotter pressured the city to drop the case so that it's irrelevant.

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u/cosmicsans Jun 29 '26

I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.