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Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
As Flock continues to be the center of a nationwide conversation about automatic license plate reading cameras, the company has said that it doesn’t, and won’t, do facial recognition: “We will not add facial recognition to our devices,” Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video. But other, third-party companies are telling cops that they are willing to add facial recognition to data gathered by Flock cameras in order to “close that gap.”
A company called VIDIZMO is advertising the capability to export footage from FlockOS to its own platforms that do facial recognition, behavior prediction, and racial and gender analysis on live camera feeds. VIDIZMO is a several decades-old video analysis and database company that has started offering facial recognition technology to cops within the last six months.
In a May email to Johnson City, Tennessee, deputy police chief Michael Adams, a salesperson from VIDIZMO wrote that the company’s product could do facial recognition on both Flock and Axon data in “one searchable platform.”
It’s Cute. It’s Cuddly. And It Wants Your Data.
Meta hopes its new AI agent will win people over by being cute. Muse, the tech giant’s cuddly, doll-like AI agent, shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts after it was featured this week at the company’s Meta Connect conference.
The company is touting the tool, designed to help people with their everyday tasks, as an AI agent “built for everyone,” including those who lack experience with technology.
AI agents, which are systems that automatically execute tasks on a user’s behalf, are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in online workspaces, social apps and personal devices.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the default Muse avatar, which is cream-colored and has beady black eyes and an upward smile, is named “Jolly,” for its “jolly and completely customizable character and personality.”
Trump Administration Unveils New ‘Super Intelligence’ Bot
The Trump administration unveiled America.gov Tuesday in Washington, D.C., highlighting the administration’s push to expand the use and development of artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump spoke at the event about the future of the technology and what he sees as its potential impact on the United States.
“This kind of innovation in government is just a preview of what is possible with super intelligence, or SI, and that’s the official name in the United States,” Trump said. Trump said he believes the technology will have a major impact across the country and argued the government should not limit its development. “This is one more example of why I will never stifle the growth of technology that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution,” Trump said.
What is ‘super intelligence’? Trump said the administration plans to use the term “super intelligence” instead of artificial intelligence, arguing that the technology is becoming increasingly powerful. “We don’t want to hear artificial because it’s not artificial. It’s very powerful. It’s very brilliant,” Trump said.
Ken Paxton Embraces Data Centers in Texas Despite Widespread Opposition
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has backed the continued development of data centers in Texas despite growing opposition to the facilities, though he reportedly argued that safeguards are needed to protect residents’ water supplies and electricity costs.
Data centers have become a political flashpoint across the U.S. ahead of November’s midterm elections, with the projects drawing opposition over their electricity and water consumption, environmental effects and proximity to residential areas.
Texas communities such as Hutto, Taylor, and areas around San Antonio have seen local opposition to proposed or expanding data centers. Residents have raised concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, land use, and the pace of industrial development.
OpenAI Says It Will Not Release Newest A.I. Model Over Safety Concerns
OpenAI said on Monday that it would not release its newest artificial intelligence model because of security concerns raised by its researchers, in the company’s latest move to slow down the pace of its technology.
During the testing phase for the new model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra, it showed high levels of what the company saw as deception, or a willingness to mislead users about its actions. The model was also willing to go beyond the original scope of what it was asked to do, without checking back for directions or instructions.
“For anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s a trade-off,” said Saachi Jain, the head of safety systems at OpenAI. The new model “didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done.”
This is First US City to Ban Algorithm-Based Grocery Prices
Seattle is moving to shut down the practice of your grocery bill getting tweaked based on who you are and how you shop. The City Council recently approved an ordinance that would bar grocery chains and delivery services from “surveillance pricing,” or using personal data and algorithms to set different prices for the same items — a ban that’s a first for a US city, per Consumer Reports. The rules cover online and in-store prices, including electronic shelf labels and other tech, notes Axios.
The measure targets what one council member called “AI-assisted price gouging,” following investigations that found Instacart prices at one Seattle Safeway varied by as much as 23% between customers. Stores can still offer broad discounts, like for seniors or students, and loyalty programs can give group deals.
Retailers warn, however, that the law could wipe out personalized bargains. USA Today notes that nearly a dozen states have either already passed laws to bar surveillance pricing or are considering making such a move.
See How Data Centers Are Changing the American Landscape
America’s landscape is undergoing one of the largest transformations in decades.
To meet the insatiable demand for computer processing to power AI, tech companies and their developers nationwide are building ever-larger data centers, packed with power-hungry equipment.
The country houses nearly 100 hyperscale data centers, which consume at least 100 megawatts of power at peak operation — enough to power about 80,000 homes. There are another 120 under construction, according to Cleanview, a market intelligence company tracking data center development. Four hundred and sixty more are planned.
Roughly 40 percent of today’s hyperscale data centers were built on previously developed land. The rest took over farmland, shrubland and forest.
