With George Orwell’s book, 1984, it seems as if the topic of Big Brother is always popping up. Many people are curious as well as intimidated about new technological methods of monitoring services. Well, with this new technology, it almost seems as if the machines determine what is appropriate/inappropriate behavior. It may sound bizarre, but with the use of monitoring cameras in conjunction with artificial intelligence, this idea that was science-fiction a few years ago may be coming into reality.

Privacy activists have been lamenting increasing surveillance by cameras and warn of abuse by authorities who have access to them. But two additional trends portend a disturbing new direction.

The first trend: Cameras are increasingly monitoring noncriminals engaged in technically legal behavior. The second trend: Special new artificial intelligence software is processing video feeds to look for unacceptable behavior.

The machines are watching us, and they are making judgments about what we do.

Another way of looking at these colliding trends is that we are beginning to offload the human capacity for ethics, morality and good citizenship to computer systems. At the very least, these systems are replacing the traditional role of the nosy neighbor.

So much for the honor system

Troy University, which is based in Alabama but has about 11,000 online students worldwide, plans to unveil a new system this fall for catching students who cheat during online tests. The system is made by Cambridge, Mass.-based Software Secure Inc. and costs each student $125.[more]

Tags: Privacy