环球影院超级碗广告宣传了人工智能监控网络。
Super Bowl Ad for Ring Cameras Touted AI Surveillance Network

原始链接: https://truthout.org/articles/super-bowl-ad-for-ring-cameras-touted-ai-surveillance-network/

在超级碗第58届期间,亚马逊旗下的Ring发布了一则广告,推广其新的“寻犬队”项目,利用人工智能帮助走失的狗狗与主人团聚。尽管宣传为一项暖心举措,但批评者认为这则广告掩盖了Ring扩大全国监控网络的意图。该项目允许用户分享Ring摄像头拍摄的画面以识别走失的宠物,亚马逊的目标是为4000个收容所配备Ring摄像头。 然而,像马修·瓜里利亚这样的专家指出,这项人工智能技术远不止于寻找狗狗——它还具备车牌识别和面部识别等功能。这引发了对数据隐私和潜在滥用的担忧,尤其考虑到Ring与执法部门以及Flock和Axon等公司的现有合作关系,允许访问大量的个人数据。 由于30%的美国家庭使用视频门铃,其中大部分是Ring的产品,这个网络提供了广泛的监控能力。“熟悉面孔”等功能,利用人工智能识别个人,进一步加剧了这些担忧。因此,这则广告营造的温馨叙事被视为一个日益壮大的监控基础设施的欺骗性外衣。

最近,Ring摄像头在超级碗期间发布了一则宣传其人工智能监控网络的广告,引发了Hacker News上关于公众对持续监控接受程度的讨论。许多评论者认为,如果人们认为能从中获得个人利益,他们会轻易接受监控,并举例称特斯拉的哨兵模式成功记录了一起肇事逃逸事件。 另一些人认为,Ring的广告宣传对象,就像洛克希德·马丁的F-35广告一样,是决策者而非普通大众。一种普遍的观点是,虽然人们*希望*通过监控来震慑犯罪,但其真实有效性值得怀疑。 一位用户分享了一个幽默的轶事,讲述了一个社区里的“包裹刺客”最终被揭露是一只乌鸦,这突显了过度监控的潜力以及为小问题扩大监控网络的荒谬性。总体基调是对Ring以及美国日益常态化的监控持批评态度。
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原文

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In an ad during the Super Bowl on Sunday night, Amazon’s Ring touted the establishment of an AI-powered surveillance network through their camera systems, which the company whitewashed under a feel-good narrative about finding lost dogs.

The ad for Ring’s free “Search Party” program urges users to “be a hero” by using their surveillance cameras to help identify lost dogs in their neighborhood. It aired to millions of viewers during Super Bowl LX on Sunday night.

“Pets are family, but every year, 10 million go missing,” narrated Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, over uncanny, seemingly AI-generated clips of lost dog posters adhered to poles. A huge proportion of the ads during the Super Bowl were for or featured AI, frustrating many viewers.

“Search Party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs,” he said, while the video showed Ring camera footage in which the software detects a dog in the frame. The company’s website says that the Search Party app can also be used by non-Ring camera owners.

Amazon’s website also touts Ring’s goal of equipping over 4,000 animal shelters across the U.S. with Ring camera systems, a $1 million initiative, claiming this will further help locate lost pets.

However, the attempt at telling a heartwarming story of reuniting dogs with their owners masks Ring’s true intentions of creating a nationwide surveillance system, analysts noted.

“It starts with searching for a ‘brown dog’ but means the tech is there for license plate reading, face recognition, searching for suspects by description, etc,” wrote surveillance and policing expert and scholar Matthew Guariglia on social media. “We already know they have a form cops can fill out to get access to footage without warrant or permission in an ‘emergency’ as determined by them. What will this mean for new features?”

Guariglia noted that Ring would likely make the AI-powered features on by default, requiring users to manually search their settings to turn it off.

Indeed, Ring has come under intense scrutiny for its collaboration with the criminal legal system, especially through its partnerships directly with police and with surveillance companies Flock and Axon, which grant law enforcement access to an enormous amount of information, including tracking of individuals, license plate recognition, and more.

Flock’s dragnet has been used by federal immigration agents to track immigrants and search for a person who received an abortion. It has also helped corporations make watch lists, following in the history of corporate blacklists of labor and social movement organizers.

While Flock’s hardware is largely in use in public locations, Ring cameras are ubiquitous in neighborhoods today. According to Consumer Reports, 30 percent of U.S. households have a video doorbell camera, with Ring being one of the most popular brands. Access to that network gives Flock and law enforcement eyes in neighborhoods across the U.S., with the ability to track millions of Americans.

A feature that the ad didn’t mention, for instance, is Ring’s “Familiar Faces” program. According to the company’s website, this beta feature “uses Ring Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recognize people.” Users help train the AI system to recognize particular faces over time, it says, so they can then receive a “personalized notification” when that particular person is at the door. The feature also “works with 24/7 Continuous Recording,” the website says, referring to their cameras’ ability to record audio and video at all times.

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