As the world
becomes more and more technologically advanced, companies seek to incorporate
advanced technology into society. Although these advancements may prove
beneficial to society, there can also be many risks that result from these
advancements. One piece of technology that proves to be increasingly beneficial
to society is surveillance cameras, which most basic capabilities include being
able to monitor and record activity around a specific area.
Wouldn’t it be
interesting if these cameras could be advanced to go beyond their basic
capabilities? Not long ago, many innocent civilians and athletes fell victim to
the Boston Marathon Bombing. After the tragedy, law enforcement struggled, when
they relied on the technology in basic surveillance cameras from nearby
department stores to identify the bombers.
What if there was
a more advanced form of surveillance camera that could have possibly prevented
the Boston Marathon Bombing in its entirety? Just recently, a software
development company by the name Behavioral Recognition Systems (BRS) announced
that they have developed an advanced surveillance system known as AISight
(“eyesight”) that could have done so. What makes AISight very promising is that
unlike a lot of information technology that relies on a programmer to tell it
what to, creating many boundaries, BRS states that what makes the AISight
surveillance camera so special is that it, “does not need a human programmer to
tell it what behavior is suspicious. I believe that this feature is very
innovative because it tests the limits of information technology. Furthermore,
it shows what information technology can do with the integration of artificial
intelligence.
One huge societal
issue today is gun violence. Individuals with mental disorders commit many of
these crimes. BRS suggests that the AISight can, “recognize a precursor pattern
that could be associated with a crime before it happens”. The AISight Camera
could possibly recognize a mental individual that has purchased a gun and
possibly prevent him from taking the lives of innocent people days in advance.
Although the AISight is making waves in
innovation by not relying on humans to tell it what to do, this innovation
could be very risky because all pieces of technology can be hacked in time. To
me, advanced innovation in information technology correlates to more ways to being
hacked and because the technology is so advanced, what hackers could use the
technology for is very scary. Surveillance cameras are used in places such as government
agencies. Imagine what a hacked AISight Camera could do in a government agency.
BRS states that the AISight is, “autonomously building an ever-changing
knowledgebase of activity seen through every camera on your video network”.
With such an automated knowledge base, who knows what limits there are to what
the camera can see and remember? If I were a government agency I would be
precautious with the use of AISight. A
hacker could possibly use the AISight to steal government files. Although the
AISight has many benefits, if used ominously, the AISight could be the next
Edward Snowden!
I don't think that this is a good idea for a camera to be placed in society. This reminds me of Big Brother, in which the government "is watching everything." Although many violence occurs in this world, people still deserve privacy. According to this blog, it says that these camera made by AlSight can stop attacks before they occur. How will these cameras be able to deduce who is a criminal and who is not? How will these cameras determine who is mentally incapable. The only way I could think of this being possible is if the cameras have data gathered on every citizen. This would be impossible because of the many amendments that protect us. In an ideal world, this would be a perfect way to stop violence in the streets, but it is common for people with no records to randomly go out and kill people. These people have no history of violence and act as normal as the "regular Joe." In conclusion, I think that these cameras won't take effect since privacy is a main concern as well as figuring out how cameras would be able to detect abnormal behavior. People have different norms and different ways of doing things, and cameras could be biased to watch people who look or act a certain way. Likewise, as the above blog states, these things could be hacked. A hacker could draw attention from terrorists by having the camera pinpoint a random citizen. While the camera alerts authorities about this citizen, terrorists could attack another place. There are too many possibilities of hacking that could harm the public more than help it.
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