Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 49 posts

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#11

Post by chatmasta »

This is not a new startup. It predates the AI era. This is the company that installs cameras in public places and wires them all together with data sharing arrangements that circumvent those pesky jurisdictional separations of power. And guess which neighborhoods have the most cameras?

It’s a pre-crime company and data broker that sells to police forces and corporations (while sharing all the data between them). It’s one of the most regressive and heinous business models someone could spend their time building.

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#12

Post by fakedang »

lm28469 wrote: post #7

> In less than 10 years, Flock’s cameras, airborne and fixed, will eradicate almost all crime in the U.S. It'll fit right in with the fully self driving cars we'll get in "two years" since 2012, and the manned flights to mars we'll get in "five years" since 2015 American version of capitalism and Chinese versions of socialisme seem to slowly converge, the future will be fun!

The difference being that you won't get self-driving cars any time soon (at least a decade away), while countries and cities such as China, Singapore, Dubai and London already have mass surveillance at an unprecedented scale. Personal freedoms are already being infringed upon in these countries, and saying the wrong thing publicly will land you behind bars.

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#13

Post by cyanydeez »

chatmasta wrote: post #11

This is not a new startup. It predates the AI era. This is the company that installs cameras in public places and wires them all together with data sharing arrangements that circumvent those pesky jurisdictional separations of power. And guess which neighborhoods have the most cameras? It’s a pre-crime company and data broker that sells to police forces and corporations (while sharing all the data between them). It’s…

Basically, get around those pesky amendments by third-partying evidence collection, then manufacture (parallel construction) cases.

It's also entirely unnecessary. It's essentially a conduit to feed "criminals" into the prison system to support whats basically the oldest form of disaster capitalism.

It's all so neat and tidy, it's almost like theres' no difference between government and business operatives.

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#15

Post by lm28469 »

fakedang wrote: post #12
lm28469 wrote: post #7

> In less than 10 years, Flock’s cameras, airborne and fixed, will eradicate almost all crime in the U.S. It'll fit right in with the fully self driving cars we'll get in "two years" since 2012, and the manned flights to mars we'll get in "five years" since 2015 American version of capitalism and Chinese versions of socialisme seem to slowly converge, the future will be fun!

The difference being that you won't get self-driving cars any time soon (at least a decade away), while countries and cities such as China, Singapore, Dubai and London already have mass surveillance at an unprecedented scale. Personal freedoms are already being infringed upon in these countries, and saying the wrong thing publicly will land you behind bars.

Oh yeah sure they have the mass surveillance, did they "eradicate crime" though?

The US can already be defined as a surveillance state in many aspects, and it could be made muche worse for sure, what I doubt is that it'll solve criminality

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#16

Post by randycupertino »

Gotta love these grandiose, attention-grabbing pie-in-the-sky mission statements. "Eliminate all crime!"

Reminds me of when I worked in the same building as Mark Zuckerberg's and his wife's health startup, whose mission statement plastered all over the building is to "eliminate all disease within our lifetimes." All disease? Really? All of them?? Every single one? Why not pick 1 disease and work on that, maybe start from there, and once you eliminate that one move on and try a few more.

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#17

Post by cactusplant7374 »

chatmasta wrote: post #11

This is not a new startup. It predates the AI era. This is the company that installs cameras in public places and wires them all together with data sharing arrangements that circumvent those pesky jurisdictional separations of power. And guess which neighborhoods have the most cameras? It’s a pre-crime company and data broker that sells to police forces and corporations (while sharing all the data between them). It’s…

I once read an article about a company that was using low flying planes and cameras. The goal was to be able to record and rewind video and then follow robbers back to their homes. Robberies are a big problem in LATAM. It could be very useful.

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#18

Post by more_corn »

Through conversion to a total surveillance state.

This does not account for any crime committed outside of public spaces: White collar crime and embezzlement Murder in private places Sexual assault in private places Domestic abuse Illegal drug use Insurance fraud Wage theft

Off the top of my head

Re: AI startup Flock thinks it can eliminate all crime in America

#20

Post by polartx »

The weakest link of the proposed technology like this is guaranteed fallibility of the folks using it, ie the judicial system and the asymmetric power dynamic against those it supposedly serves.

This is a very common scenario: a sheriffs deputy holds a biased belief against an individual. Said deputy selects and overfits data from systems like this to obtain a warrant against said individual. Individual is arrested and enters the meat grinder that is the justice system where hundreds of experienced indifferent agents and millions of dollars are put to work to support that deputies biased accusation. That original bad actor can now disengage and go about their life. Meanwhile, our Individual must spend a fortune on legal defense to prove their innocence. Individual loses time, money, peace, and reputation pursuing the best case realistic scenario—having charges dismissed (though indefinitely tainting their record). The more realistic scenario is individual is unjustly punished to some degree through plea agreements or trial (if they can afford it) which could easily ruin the rest of their life.

I’m not on the ACAB extreme, I just personally know many law enforcement officers and work in the industry adjacent to the justice system.

Post reply on HN