Big Brother is Watching… So What?
For European Researchers’ Night on 30 September 2022, the ADAPT research centre and the LT Bridge project partners based at the University of Malta hosted a #DiscussAI Think-In to discuss the rise in facial recognition technology with CCTV.
“Big Brother is Watching… So What?’’ took place in Dublin, Ireland and Valletta in Malta. Some really interesting and insightful conversations were had on the night.
Below we’ve made note of some of the points we heard during the discussions.
- Measures that increase public safety are welcome, however research demonstrates that CCTV does not necessarily stop crime.
- People have concerns about where these technologies might be heading in the future.
- Laws would be needed to ensure a right to privacy (along the lines of the GDPR).
- Cultural differences should be taken into consideration when approaching these types of technology.
- Media literacy is becoming increasingly more important.
- Questions were raised about:
- how the data is collected and processed?
- how do governments use this information?
- Who controls it?
- Whether facial recognition would indeed stop antisocial behaviour?
The scribe notes from the discussions will be analysed as part of the wider #DiscussAI Think-Ins project and the findings will be published after the project’s completion. You can read the report from the previous Think-Ins series here:
We need to talk about AI
