• angband@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    21 hours ago

    Please, > 20 years ago, aurora colorado, built a license plate tracking system they installed in most light controlled intersections. Specifically with the intention of tracking every vehicle within city limits. There is no paranoia there, all these jurisdictions say this shit out loud, and have for decades. All the police marketers trumpet they’ll be able to track people with facial recognition, out loud, and for years. Efficacy aside, they’re drooling over it. Out loud, in marketing materials, statehouses, and newspapers for years upon years.

    • mechoman444@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      20 hours ago

      I’ve addressed this license plate scanner thing way too many times.

      This has been a known fact for decades, as you yourself mentioned. License plate scanners are already used everywhere. Home Depot is a particularly egregious example.

      Which is exactly why I said there are much easier ways to track us than building AI data centers.

      Did you actually read what I wrote, or are you responding to what you assumed I said?

      • angband@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        14 hours ago

        You’re masquerading as knowledgeable. Plate scanners have been motion triggered in the past, with text ocr scanning for plates, followed by manual review for confirmation. “AI” increases throughput and allows fast finding of more selective visual data automatically. Like this: https://lemmy.world/post/49325290?scrollToComments=true

        Computer vision goes way past the old plate scanners. They are using pkate scanners for what you say they aren’t, with the technology you say they aren’t using.

        Did you actually read what I said, and see what you wanted, or are you a shill?

        • mechoman444@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          Let’s see if I can get this across, because you seem to have one singular idea stuck in your head. Quite an accomplishment, considering how small that space appears to be.

          Read this part carefully. We already have a surveillance infrastructure. It’s been in place for decades. It exists for law enforcement, and even more extensively for marketing. Can AI improve those systems? Yes. Will it? Probably. To what extent remains to be seen.

          What I reject is the claim that privately owned AI data centers are being built as part of some grand conspiracy to spy on the public. They’re being built for one reason: money. Companies are investing billions because they expect a return on that investment, not because they’re secretly constructing an Orwellian surveillance network.

          I already acknowledged that license plate readers and similar technologies exist. Then you responded with a story about a traffic camera incorrectly flagging a woman for having her cellphone in her lap. That doesn’t refute my point, it reinforces it. The surveillance infrastructure already exists. You’re arguing against something I explicitly agreed with.

          Any system can be abused. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. None of that is in dispute.

          And what exactly am I “shilling” here? Why do people keep making assumptions instead of reading what’s actually written?

          I never advocated for building AI data centers, nor did I advocate for using LLMs. My point was simply that these facilities are not being built for the purpose of secretly spying on the public. If someone wants to monitor people, there are already far cheaper and more effective systems in place.

          By that logic, car manufacturers build cars so they can be used in drive-by shootings rather than for transportation. That’s obviously an absurd way to infer intent from a tool’s potential misuse.

          Since this will probably be ignored as well, here’s something that doesn’t fit your narrative: I’m actually against the construction of AI data centers. I think they’re an environmental and societal blight. But opposing AI infrastructure doesn’t require inventing conspiracies about why it’s being built.

            • mechoman444@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              4 hours ago

              Yeah. Says the troll.

              At this point, you’ve shown there’s nothing you can do to refute anything I’ve said. You have nothing constructive to add to the conversation. You can’t admit you might be wrong or acknowledge when you’ve been corrected, so you’ve fallen back on ad hominem attacks instead.

              Soon you will be more powerful than the both of us.