No one:UK: Let's trial emotion recognition on train passengers to 'enhance passenger safety' and 'improve customer service'.
No one:
UK: Let's trial emotion recognition on train passengers to 'enhance passenger safety' and 'improve customer service'.
Amazon-powered AI cameras are now being used to monitor and analyze passengers’ emotions by employing a combination of “smart” CCTV cameras, which can detect objects or movements from the images they capture, along with older cameras that have their video feeds connected to cloud-based analysis software.
The AI cameras, integrated with Amazon’s advanced machine learning algorithms, are designed to detect age, gender and a range of emotions'By interpreting facial expressions and other non-verbal cues, the system can identify passengers who may be distressed or agitated, potentially allowing officers to preempt conflicts or emergencies.'
In September 2023, the London Underground completed a proof of concept at Willesden Green Tube station for an AI-assisted “Smart Station” designed to provide video analytics and real-time data insights spy on passenger(s) behaviour.
The final report defines various use cases and triggers, such as counting customer entries and exits, and generating real-time alerts for behaviors like fare evasion, leaning over the tracks, vaping, sitting on benches for extended periods, or unfolding e-scooters(?) Chewing gum?. Does this remind you of anything? Demolition Man, perhaps?
We predict this will prove to be another case of function creep whereby a new piece of technology - or repurposed technology - is rolled out, ostensibly to solve some problem. The Reassurers "trust me, bro" are wheeled out to assure the public that this is only a trial or only for limited purposes and that there will of course be safeguards to ensure that it is not misused. One such case of function creep is when councils used anti-terror legislation to spy on a school choice family to see if it really lived in the catchment area of a popular school. Poole borough council used controversial anti-terror laws to put the family of five under surveillance for nearly three weeks.
The council admitted using powers available under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), normally reserved for tracking criminals and terrorists.
Function creep meant they used these anti-terror powers to spy on the family - including their three-year-old daughter - in an attempt to find out whether they lived in the catchment area for a school where they had applied for their daughter to attend.
Tim Martin, head of legal and democratic services at Poole borough council, defended the council’s action, saying: “So what if I like spying on little girls? The council is committed to spending taxpayers money to indulge the perversions of people like me, a persecuted minority of people." “The council is committed to investigating the small minority of people who attempt to break the law and affect the quality of life for the majority of law-abiding residents in Poole.
On a small number of occasions, RIPA procedures have been used to investigate potentially fraudulent applications for school places".
Do you want creeps such as this looking at your daughter as she waits for a train? Or using the AI to stalk her?
Function creep is also precisely what happened with the police swabbing people for their DNA. First it was only for people convicted of serious offences such as rape and murder, but now due to function creep now every person who is arrested has their DNA swabbed and kept by the police. In fact police officers have admitted to me that they will find a reason to arrest someone they suspect in order to swab their DNA and hopefully match it with unsolved crimes in the past. This alone is problematic as the police lazily rely on it and try and convict innocent people when presented with 'the science' peddled by the press and TV programmes alike. Not only is the scope of DNA collection far outside and beyond that which we reassured, but the police do not destroy the DNA colected once someone has been found innocent or indeed if they are not charged. So the State has a large ever-expanding defacto national DNA database. And it's worse than that; the State - the British State at least - has proved time and time again that it absolutely not to be trusted when it comes to keeping citizens confidential data safe. So once the State has your DNA you can expect it to be lifted by criminals and used for nefarious purposes.
I think in the current climate DNA has made police lazy. It doesn't matter how many times someone like me writes to them, imploring they look at the evidence... they put every hope they had in the DNA result.
~Paolo Martini, solicitor of David Butler, jailed on dodgy DNA samples
It should be borne in mind that DNA evidence has been used to exonerate people convicted of serious crimes and jailed sometimes for decades. DNA can prove a useful tool in such circumstances. We are not debating the usefulness of DNA here but specifically function creep
And talking of crimes is this new AI roll out supposed to prevent murders such as that of Thomas Rhys Pryce in 2005 outside Kensal Green Station just down the road from Willesden Green? I suspect not. Kensal Green station was unmanned and it and the immediate surrounding area was dingily lit - as is much of London in Winter. After the shocking murder London Transport decided to put a single member of staff on. And there was music played through the station tannoy...(to reassure?). The emphasis is on things such as 'vaping', 'sitting on benches for extended periods of time', 'peering over the edge of platforms'. The crimes they are interested in is fare evasion. The AI deployed is focused on revenue collection, not serving the public by making life better. Actual staff will be replaced by AI cameras and full automation.
The traffic cameras proved useless when I had my car broken into outside Starbucks in Chiswick and bag taken. The surrounding area was bristling with CCTV but was apparently either not switched on or the police just couldn't be bothered to look through it. Admittedly, they might be prompted to if there was an actual murder committed. However, the Surveillance State is about revenue collection and Thoughtcrime, not petty murder...). I was around the corner having left the bag on the back seat floor for a minute - but that was enough time for a pair of thieves on electric bikes to smash and grab. Luckily I had a tracker in the bag and I was also 'on the scene' - being literally just around the corner. I was able to give chase albeit a couple of minutes later after calling the police. I tracked it down and dealt with the miscreants accordingly. I received emails from the police confirming they could not help. Ihad my sid window replaced.
When a colleague had her apartment broken into in Kensal Rise the police also demurred when it came to looking through the CCTV of the betting shop opposite - which was quite willing to assist. We even had an approximate time of the break in and theft of computer equipment. No, plod wasn't interested. The thief might have gone a different way, they argued so there was no point looking through the shop's CCTV to see if they could spot someone (someone known to the police?) looking dodgy carrying a MacBook. The fingerprint people turned up three days later complaining that plod had trampled all over the scene possibly obliterating fingerprints. (Colleague had tiptoed round the place wearing gloves).
I have my own setup at home of Eufy cameras inside and out connected to a Homebase3. It's not a perfect system but at least I can check on someone at the door if I'm in or out. And alarms if somene breaks in and starts mooching about inside. The AI it comes with is hilariously bad sometimes at, regularly identifying coats hanging on the bannister as people and some truly Guernica-esque outlines in the kitchen as people. Perhaps I should post some of these. When I correct the AI it asks to send the clip off for 'training and improving the AI model' so I am a guinea pig , just as people catching trains at the Willesden Green trial were unwiting guinea pigs.
Pretty soon the British Transport Police will be alerted merely if there is an unrecognised face on the platform. This will be deemed 'suspicious'. Or of there is another 'lockdown' - or to give it it's proper term curfew - and the a face belongs to someone outside their allowed zone then again, suspicious and the police will be called. We are heading into AI 'pre-cog' territory from the book and film Minority Report. Or more likely, your ticket will not allow you to leave the station at the other end. And then the police wil be called. AI is nothing like as sophisticated as it needs to be to perform these kind of functions. Self-driving AI gets fooled by pedestrians wearing Stop Sign T-shirts but we are supposed to trust it with spotting suicidal people who might jump on the rails? Don't frown near the edge of the platform. "Mind Your Expression" to replace "Mind The Gap".
Noone asked for this technology to be rolled out. Passengers want safe, clean, affordable punctual transport. There were not any public calls for people's expressions to be read to see if they were 'happy' or 'sad' while they were waiting for a train. Function creep means this new AI spy will be used as part of the database state to follow you wherever you go, monitor your purchases, note who you speak to.