Oracle Chairman Proposes a Future in which Americans Will Be Surveilled at All Times Through a Vast Network of AI-Enabled Cameras and Drones

Oracle co-founder, Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison shared his vision for the future of AI-powered surveillance at a company financial conference, reportedly saying, 'We expect AI to one day power law enforcement's mass surveillance networks.'

Oracle's Larry Ellison says that AI will someday track your every move | TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/16/oracle-ceo-larry-ellison-says-that-ai-will-someday-track-your-every-move/

Omnipresent AI cameras will ensure good behavior, says Larry Ellison | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/

'Every police officer will be supervised at all times, and if there's an issue, the AI will report that to the right people,' Ellison said at an Oracle financial analyst conference . 'Everything will be logged and reported all the time, so citizens will be on the best behavior.'

Oracle's Larry Ellison says a surveillance system of police body cams, cameras on cars and autonomous drones, all monitored by AI, will constantly record and report on police and citizens, leading everyone to be on their best behavior pic.twitter.com/RAq5XGaNmZ

— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) September 15, 2024

Ellison also said, 'AI-controlled drones will replace police cars in chasing cars on the highway. All you have to do is have the drone follow the car. In the age of autonomous drones, that's very easy.'

The AI predictions and monitoring that Ellison envisions will depend on the development of powerful hardware. 'Musk and I begged Huang for GPUs,' Ellison said at a dinner with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

by Oracle PR

'Ellison believes that AI surveillance could significantly reduce crime, but past efforts don't necessarily support his claim,' said TechCrunch, an IT news site.

For example, according to The Washington Post , it has been pointed out that American police are biased in their targeting of black and Latino people, and there are concerns that inputting police data into AI will further reinforce this bias. In fact, when the Los Angeles Police Department tested a crime prediction program in 2019, it found that it had increased surveillance of black and Latino people, and discontinued the program.

In addition, IT news site Ars Technica points out that AI-based surveillance systems are already becoming a reality, with surveillance cameras being trialed on the London Underground and at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and that China has been using cameras to monitor its residents and collect personal data for years.

Ars Technica took a critical stance, saying, 'While Ellison is trying to make a positive prediction about universal public surveillance, his comments raise serious questions about privacy, civil liberties, and the potential for abuse in a world of AI surveillance.'