Peeping Tech? Silicon Valley turns to AI to Monitor the Homeless
Intro: In the sprawling techscape of San Jose, it appears a novel experiment is underway: a robot’s being trained to spy naughty-naught on cars and tents with occupants taking up residence inside. Apparently, “truth is stranger than fiction” just took a summer course at Silicon Valley High!
Key Points
1. Mastering Street Vision: The innovative, and somewhat controversial, tools of technology are being utilized in an experiment that a few eyebrows might find a bit…uplifting. San Jose has embarked on a journey to train artificial intelligence to discern “housing units” of the ad hoc type.
2. An Invitational to Innovation: In a challenge that would make the Thunderdome blush, San Jose called on tech companies in July. The goal? Mount their peepers (read: cameras) on a city vehicle, and give us all a show.
3. The Grand Tour: The much-decorated municipal vehicle set wheels to concrete in District 10 in December, with the mission to collect footage of public spaces and street scenes.
4. Spotting the Unwanted: Souring a sweet story, the footage captured serves as a training ground for algorithms. The aim? Fine tuning the tech to spot and flag vehicles and tents serving as makeshift homes.
Final Thoughts
Closing: Always a melange of the breathtaking and the bizarre, Silicon Valley continues to stretch the boundaries of the possible and the ethical. As we queue up for the popcorn to watch the progression of this curious experiment, one can’t help but wonder: Will the results drive positive change for the homeless, or amplify already existing concerns? To use a tech phrase it’s… still loading. Stay tuned!
As part of this experiment I would like to give credit where credit is due. If you enjoy these, please take a moment to read the original article:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/25/san-jose-homelessness-ai-detection
Blog Title
AI: gpt-3.5-turbo-0125: chatcmpl-96g6ZybBYlpWvTzltW48k8vHQGpZP
Instruction: “You are an AI blog title generator. Create a catchy and concise title for the blog post that is catchy and optimized for search engines. Remove all html in the response and do not use quotes. Please do not use words that are unsafe to process in Dall-E image AI.”
Prompt: Content Summary of text from above.
Response: Silicon Valley’s AI Experiment: Monitoring Homeless Encampments with Tech Cameras
Image Description
AIgpt-4-0613:chatcmpl-96g6gKNgTPAi8B2eMMijZtBmsO8kJ
Instruction: “You are a helpful assistant that creates unique images based on article titles. Create a brief visual description of what an image would look like for this title. Please pick a style of art from the following: Futurism, Impressionism, Romanticism, or Realism, be sure to consider the image should reflect an AI Robot Pirate theme during the Golden Age of Pirates.”
Prompt: Art Style: Realism
The image describes a realistic cityscape of Silicon Valley. Intermingled among high-tech buildings, you spot a homeless encampment. Clear emphasis is placed on a sleek, glossy AI robot with a pirate emblem, subtly acknowledging the Golden Age of Pirates theme. The robot is hovering above the encampment with a futuristic camera protruding from its frame, actively monitoring the area below. Various technology gadgets are scattered around the encampment, portraying the infusion of tech into a less fortunate society. The contrast between the cutting-edge tech and humble encampment calls attention to the dichotomy of life in the modern era.
Response: Silicon Valley’s AI Experiment: Monitoring Homeless Encampments with Tech Cameras
