You are being watched.
Closed Circuit TV (or CCTV) systems are currently in use all over the world in an ongoing attempt to decrease crime and terrorism. As a citizen of the United States my exposure to CCTV systems is fairly limited, usually just inside shopping centers, casinos or parking lots and garages. My perception changed after a visit to London and three events that happened to me during my stay. First off, CCTV cameras seemed to be on every block, facing in every direction. This seemed like a major breach of privacy to me, but I could understand their usefulness as a deterrent and as a tool for the police. Secondly, during my visit I had lost my passport, and in my search to find it I ended up in an underground surveillance room to fill out some paperwork. In the room were two people, staring at a wall of monitors showing CCTV feeds. Again I was amazed how the citizens of London had their everyday lives watched. I eventually had to pay a visit to the US embassy, where the third event happened and I saw the possible value of CCTV. A news report was on TV in the waiting area, and it showed CCTV footage of a child being kidnapped. By the time I left the embassy a few hours later, the perpetrators had been caught as a direct result of the CCTV footage. I came away from the whole ordeal wondering if the trade of privacy for security was worthwhile. I had been shocked at what I saw, yet had seen exactly why it was in place.
Well, current CCTV developments have made it easy for me to know where I stand. A system called AISight is being used around the globe, and it is terrifying.
AISight is software that can be used with any CCTV system, and it is designed to be cognitive just like a human brain. It is meant to take people out of the loop in video surveillance, because it is supposed to act just like a person.
Creating an interconnection between vision analytics and a system that emulates the cognitive process, utilizing various machine intelligence and machine-learning technologies, represents a breakthrough for the video surveillance industry. A cognitive-based video analytics system is not only equipped with the ability to “see” better but also to “learn,” “remember,” and “make observations” much like a human brain. A cognitive-based video analytics system constructs its own understanding of the world it is observing by evaluating the patterns of activity for any given environment over time. A “mental model” is then created for each scene to make sense of observed activities.
So AISight will monitor the CCTV video feeds, and based on what it sees it will learn and remember what it has seen, as well as create its own understanding of the world. Remember, this system operates outside the sphere of human influence, except for its original programming and algorithms. So over time, the AISphere system will have its own unique idea of what the world is and how it operates. What happens if it doesn’t like what it sees? Will innocent bystanders feel the wrath of a computer program that has a distorted view of reality? The alerts AISphere gives are supposed to be anything out of the ordinary in comparison to what it has already witnessed. Anyone doing anything slightly different from the norm could hypothetically be viewed as a threat.
Also, what would stop a computer that is supposed to act exactly like a human brain from developing self awareness? A large part of how you know who you are is because of what you have witnessed and the memories that are associated with your experiences. Since this is exactly what AISight is meant to do, it seems possible that its cognitive abilities could lead to self awareness. The last thing we need is a self aware computer program with millions of eyes watching societies all over the world.
Although AISight could be seen as the next step forward for video surveillance systems, I’m terrified of the possible ramifications of allowing a program to have cognitive abilities. Software that could become self aware should not be linked into millions of video feeds, watching the patterns and daily routines of people. So remember, the next time you happen to see a CCTV camera, don’t do anything strange or else an incredibly powerful computer program will remember you.
::BRS Labs via Help Net Security::
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Twitter Username: therealmegaman
says:
Scary Indeed..Amazing though that the technology is available.
Interesting how so many of George Orwell’s vision of 1984 are slowly making their way into our current society. Interesting too how so many of us have come to simply accept the spying eyes of the world’s governments in the name of “security” as the media has helped increase the fear of “terrorism” and the need for surveillance.
Twitter Username: john_metcalf
says:
I hate CCTV. Sometime I can see the camera’s turning to follow me
I’ve checked by changing direction. I urge everyone to act strange to confuse AISight!