AI video surveillance at Olympics sparks backlash from privacy activists

“They always use them [массовые мероприятия — прим. ред.] “as Trojan horses to try to introduce technologies more widely,” Bloomberg quotes Ella Yakubovskaya, head of policy at European Digital Rights, as saying.

In Paris, CCTV cameras across the city will monitor millions of visitors to watch for the presence of weapons or suspicious people in the crowd. After a signal from the AI ​​algorithm, real security officers decide whether to further notify local and national police about the incident.

Authorities see AI surveillance as a security tool, but privacy advocates on both sides of the Atlantic are sounding the alarm. They associate false positives from algorithms with infringements on the rights of ethnic groups and other citizens.

They believe that the existing security measures in stadiums are sufficient to ensure the safety of the population. The desire to implement AI everywhere is associated with the erroneous belief that technologies cope with all tasks better than people.

A French law allowing for increased surveillance by artificial intelligence at the Olympics will also be used during the 2024 Paralympics, which begin on August 28.

The increased use of AI-powered video surveillance at such high-profile events could create a greater appetite for off-site mass surveillance, some privacy advocates say.