Utah enables comprehensive surveillance to detect crime in real time

Under a five-year $20.7 million contract, the US state of Utah is allowing the AI company Banjo real time access to numerous sources of state-owned camera and location data, among other types and combine it with information collected from social media, satellites, and other apps in order to use its algorithms to detect "anomalies" and alert law enforcement to crimes as they take place. Banjo claims to be able to do this while stripping personal information from its "Live Time Intelligence" system. Banjo claims it helps police find emergencies and criminal acts, not criminals. Banjo also says it will automate monitoring thousands of police surveillance cameras in real time, a plan critics believe will amount to a "persistent panopticon pointed at everyone in Utah".

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7exem/banjo-ai-company-utah-surveillance-panopticon

Publication: Vice

Writer: Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, and Joseph Cox