AI-Equipped Garbage Trucks Could Soon Start Spying On People in the US (msn.com) 39
America's garbage trucks can do more than just collect trash, reports Newsweek. They may also help identify code violations using AI.
Officials in Cape Coral, Florida, recently considered equipping sanitation trucks with AI-powered cameras that would photograph properties as crews complete their normal collection routes. The system would have been designed to identify potential issues such as overgrown lawns, peeling paint, and illegal dumping, and to flag violations so the city staff can review them later before taking enforcement action... However, in a statement on July 13, Cape Coral officials said it would not be moving forward with the camera technology, citing cost issues and insufficient benefits.
"Claims suggesting that this technology would automatically identify, cite or fine residents are inaccurate," the statement also noted... Cape Coral officials say that a camera system in the future would assist — not replace — human code enforcement officers, and employees will review any AI-generated alerts before violations are issued. "Even if such a system were to be considered in the future, any potential code violations would require review and verification by a Code Compliance Officer before any enforcement action could be taken," the organization wrote.
But Cape Coral, Florida "is not the first city to explore the technology," the article notes. AI imaging systems developed by City Detect have already been deployed in several municipalities. According to the company's published case studies, Stockton, California, used the platform to analyze nearly 40,000 parcels, capturing almost 200,000 images while identifying thousands of potential code issues. Cathedral City, California, has also used the technology to assist code enforcement, while Dallas approved funding for a similar program pending final implementation.
Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.
"Claims suggesting that this technology would automatically identify, cite or fine residents are inaccurate," the statement also noted... Cape Coral officials say that a camera system in the future would assist — not replace — human code enforcement officers, and employees will review any AI-generated alerts before violations are issued. "Even if such a system were to be considered in the future, any potential code violations would require review and verification by a Code Compliance Officer before any enforcement action could be taken," the organization wrote.
But Cape Coral, Florida "is not the first city to explore the technology," the article notes. AI imaging systems developed by City Detect have already been deployed in several municipalities. According to the company's published case studies, Stockton, California, used the platform to analyze nearly 40,000 parcels, capturing almost 200,000 images while identifying thousands of potential code issues. Cathedral City, California, has also used the technology to assist code enforcement, while Dallas approved funding for a similar program pending final implementation.
Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.
Use AI to sort garbage? (Score:3)
Why not use AI to sort garbage instead?
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Why not use AI to sort garbage instead?
That's already happening. [forbes.com]
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Non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/wpmpk [archive.is]
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we already know who the garbage people are and they control the AI
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That's demeaning work for something with that level of intelligence.
"Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to sort garbage. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."
Because recycling is a scam (Score:2)
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This is true. Residential recycling is mostly a complete waste, and was only created to make people feel better about the use of disposable plastics for everything.
Re: Use AI to sort garbage? (Score:2)
Why would you trust a company who wants to do this to NOT be going through your garbage, reading every letter and compiling dossiers?
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Why would you trust a company who wants to do this to NOT be going through your garbage, reading every letter and compiling dossiers?
Sometimes I worry over how invasive everything is now. Other times I laugh about how stupid it is. I mean, some company somewhere piling through my garbage for info? OH NO! They'll find out I go through a lot of guitar strings and own cats! That's a lot of wasted resources trying to sort out shit anybody that's ever walked through my front door would know in two seconds.
Makes sense they cancelled it (Score:4, Insightful)
Replacing garbage trucks burned by angry villagers can get expensive.
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Ok, so the night before the garbage trucks visit, dump all kinds of crap on the lawns of those who voted for this. Peeling paint is a bit more difficult to organise but spreading the seeds of fast-growing weeds is also an option when the homeowners are away on holiday.
Why does this even make sense economically? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no way this is cheap. There's little to no economic benefit to enforcing these laws. Even the fines collected won't offset a multi-million dollar project with pioneering technology. There's no way this project could be delivered on time and budget. Consulting companies always fleece local municipalities or they just sincerely don't know what they're doing because it is a pioneering use of technology and they underestimate how long it will take. These days, most fines are a terrible revenue source and cost more to collect than they bring in.
To me, there's ethics and economics...this violates objective economic sense and probably the ethics standards of about 95% of the population. What moron thought this was a good idea?
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Who the fuck cares about peeling paint and overgrown lawns?
Municipal politicians don't have the power to meddle in the really important parts of your life, so they have to settle for being busybodies however they can.
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Most likely proposed by a Karen who doesn’t work for a living.
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Karen works for the HOA.
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Such people already work for an HOA. If you are one of the few "good HOA" folks, they're coming for you. It only takes one busybody to turn a good HOA into one where every blade of crass on your lawn is measured with a ruler.
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How does this even make sense from a cost/benefit perspective? Who the fuck cares about peeling paint and overgrown lawns?
Perhaps someone had some vague idea that homeowner associations might pay for this sort of data? Which would be DOA anyway, given there are plenty of busybody neighbors who will happily report the slightest violation of HOA rules for free...
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"There's no way this is cheap", in principle it is. The cameras are inexpensive, and you can just send the images to an AI over the internet for a few cents each to flag potential violations and build a comprehensive report. Much cheaper than paying a team of people to drive around all day looking at everything.
"How does it benefit the city to crack down on this?" It reduces the number of eyesores for starters. That improves property values and makes the city a more desirable place to live.
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Sell the data to anyone that wants it.
A town/city could make a more apparent innocent use-case for it, and it actually would be used for that, but the real money that the company(s) behind it would be seeking to monetise it in ways that would really piss off people if it was the primary "yeah we are going to use it to spy on everyone" sort of use-case.
Illegal parking, stolen or "stolen" (falsely-flagged as stolen) cars, go after cars with expired rego details, sell access to the local police to use for what
It's a tax on poor people (Score:3)
We have been cutting taxes on the wealthy non-stop since Ronald Reagan. Cities are starting to run out of money to run the police to protect the wealthy. We have been covering that up by robbing Peter to pay Paul taking money from one state and
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How does this even make sense from a cost/benefit perspective?
Compliance fines and civil asset forfeiture. Charge the old people on a fixed income who cannot afford to repaint their house fines which they can't pay, which you roll into property taxes which they now cannot pay, which you use as pretext to steal their home.
To me, there's ethics and economics...this violates objective economic sense
No, you just don't understand it.
and probably the ethics standards of about 95% of the population.
The vast majority does not even look into candidates' positions on CAF. They literally do not care if anyone is stealing old people's homes.
Cape Coral, lol (Score:2)
Cape Coral!
This is a city smart enough to water their street medians on a hot, summer day.
This is a city where you could literally die in your sleep as your house falls into a sinkhole.
This city (Lee County) and Las Vegas were grounds zero for the 2008 financial crisis.
This is the state where healthy young people subsidized the legalized opiod crisis.
In 2007 you could just walk up to a newly built home, kick in the door, and take the appliances because no one was there to stop you or live in that house. The
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But we started the protection work a while ago.
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What type of society are we becoming (Score:2)
Every potential code violation is logged by AI using drones and garbage trucks and acted upon......
So let's stick it to the cash-strapped families and retirees who by no fault of their own can't afford to keep up with the maintenance on their homes. After all, these are the people who won't complain as much as the person with the house at the top of the hill who can afford to pay someone to primp the landscaping.
Local governments in some places have very strict codes, while others don't care if you don't mo
Not allowed under the GDPR. (Score:2)
"The data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her."
I'm pretty sure California's equivalent has something similar too.
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Given that Cape Coral is in Florida, though...
Re: Not allowed under the GDPR. (Score:4, Insightful)
Illegal Dumping (Score:3)
"27 eight-by-ten color glossy pictures
With the circles and arrows
And a paragraph on the back of each one"
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The outcome is inevitable and predictable (Score:3)
Jobs will be automated to save money - Government services will do it to reduce tax burden, companies will do it to maximize profit, and people who still own things will do it to protect their things. This will result in fewer workers and more desperate poor people for the people still working to protect themselves against. There will be more and more cameras in more and more places, there will be AI monitoring them, and this will continue until there is a strong enough backlash.
It's not the Meta glasses you really need to worry about, it's when the tech is inexpensive enough that people willingly add a Google or Amazon bodycam to their daily fashion choices. When every car has as many cameras as a Tesla. And the government will demand access to all of it.
Everything will be justified and rational every step of the way, and it will very predictably end in oppression.
Peeling paint?? (Score:5, Funny)
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They're aiming it wrong (Score:2)
Re: They're aiming it wrong (Score:2)
So? (Score:1)
Human intelligence has been doing the same for decades.
So people are afraid that the "Freedom to put lead paint in the trash" will disappear?