Facial recognition helps find a missing child. License plate readers recover a stolen car. AI catches fraud that no auditor would ever find by hand. Cameras supply evidence after a crime that would otherwise go unsolved. None of these tools is authoritarian by nature, and pretending otherwise makes the whole
Authoritarian government is not a new invention. States have always watched the people they govern, using police, informants, intercepted mail, and whatever records they could manage to keep. What has changed is the price. Surveillance used to be expensive. Following one person took several people working in shifts. Reading someone’
BearNetAI | Bytes to Insights The Year Artificial Intelligence Reshaped Everything Compiled from BearNetAI Weekly News Digests | January – December 2025 bearnetai.com/news-digest Introduction No year in recent memory compressed more technological history into twelve months than 2025. Artificial intelligence moved decisively from the laboratory into everyday life, from speculative
Google’s updated public AI ethics policy removes its promise that it won’t use the technology to pursue applications for weapons and surveillance. In a previous version of the principles, Google included applications that it wouldn’t pursue. One such category was weapons or other technology intended to injure