Billionaire Dreams of an AI-Powered World

Where “Citizens Will Be on Their Best Behavior”

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”

All of us would soon be continually grinning for the camera if it were up to Larry Ellison, the opulently wealthy cofounder of the software company Oracle. Not for a happy snap shot, but to please our immensely intrusive, if not completely ubiquitous, algorithmic overseers.
The tech magnate glibly forecasts, as reported by Business Insider, that the wonders of AI will usher in a new era of supercharged surveillance, ensuring that the proles excuse us all behave and follow the rules.

Ellison stated this week at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, “We’re going to have supervision,” according to BI. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report that problem and report it to the appropriate person.”
“Citizens will be on their best behavior,” he stated, “because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”

Naturally, a large number of these monitoring tools such as bodycams and security cameras are already installed. The unique dystopian development would be the deployment of AIs to continuously monitor these streams, which is already happening in some experimental forms, albeit not as widely as Ellison envisions so that the outnumbered and destitute Feds in intelligence agencies around the world had a little support.

Ellison said it might even give patrol cops a run for their money. For example, why would you want them to engage in a dangerous automobile pursuit when you could have an AI drone follow a suspect?
Ellison stated, “You just have a drone follow the car,” according to BI. “It’s very simple in the age of autonomous drones.”

All of this comes from a guy who is, well, really wealthy. Ellison is reportedly worth over $200 billion, depending on whose estimate you believe. He is presently the second wealthiest person in the world, after Elon Musk, another tech mogul who is currently making money off of government monitoring.

Oracle has been trying to establish itself as a leader in the AI race under Ellison’s direction, and it has incorporated the technology into its cloud computing services quite rapidly.
Presumably, the Austin-based firm will want to be a part of the royal “we” that Ellison like to refer to as being in charge of the “citizens.” It’s important to note, however, that Oracle faced legal action in 2022 for allegedly operating a “global surveillance machine” that was made possible by gathering billions of people’s personal data and selling it to outside parties.

In July, the matter was settled, with a $115 million payment. Whatever you want to make of it.