AI Surveillance Should Scare Both Democrats And Republicans

Authored by Brendan Steinhauser via RealClearPolitics,

In a country desperate for unifying issues, there is growing consensus on one: surveillance of American citizens. From progressives who want to hold ICE accountable to conservatives who fear Big Government, an ever-expanding federal government has put many Americans on high alert, and artificial intelligence is only making matters worse.

To quote New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom, “ICE is watching you.” It is true: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement saw its 2025 budget triple to nearly $30 billion, which would rank the agency as the 14th highest-funded military in the world. Much of the money is funding surveillance technology, including tools to crack phones, monitor social media, and track the movements of U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike. The Department of Homeland Security and affiliated agencies are currently piloting and deploying more than 100 AI systems, including some used in law enforcement activities.

Wherever one may stand on illegal immigration and related policies, there is cause for concern whenever Big Government threatens individual rights. Advanced, aggressive AI transcends the issue. Last year, federal agencies publicly reported more than 1,700 AI use cases – from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We have heard the horror stories out of China, where AI is combined with social media monitoring, facial recognition, and new-age cameras to track the Chinese Communist Party’s critics (perceived or real), with the CCP following their statements and locations. But is that really unimaginable here?

Leaning on AI companies as core contractors, DHS has long scanned millions of social media posts, using new technologies to summarize findings. At the Environmental Protection Agency, AI spies on federal workers by monitoring communications. Citing “national security” at every turn, the federal government has given carte blanche to Palantir, whose sales and stock price have spiked in recent years. This means integrating Palantir data collection into operations at HHS and the Internal Revenue Service. Is that for national security, too?

What about “pattern of life” modeling that identifies when people deviate from normal routines? Or the rise of “predictive policing,” à la Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report”?

When pressed on Palantir’s surveillance agenda, Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s argument is that Americans essentially need more surveillance now to be more free later. You read that right: As Karp recently put it, “Freedom from unwarranted government surveillance … requires the construction of a technical system that is built to make possible oversight of its own use and limit, not expand, the material and information subject to access.”

Federal surveillance is only the beginning of the problem. State by state, police departments and other entities are leaning into AI tools to study citizens and share data from coast to coast. In Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, and other states, thousands of police departments are using Flock’s AI-powered license plate reader cameras to track drivers when they pass one of Flock’s cameras on the road. 

Take Massachusetts, where the state has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to monitor the locations of drivers and share that information with a network of over 7,000 agencies and organizations across America. Or consider Maine, where localities are using AI to scan license plates, create digital profiles, and experiment with facial recognition. This information can then be entered into a national database for federal access to information.

With each passing week, the mainstream media reports on “authoritarian AI surveillance” in China, but Americans do not need to look overseas for proof. From social media to our morning commute, we have countless case studies in government overreach right here at home. Our AI surveillance state is driven by a sweeping alliance of federal, state, and local governments with Silicon Valley’s most innovative monitoring systems.

It is not just Washington, D.C., or your state capitol or city hall or Palantir; it is all of the above. When it comes to civil liberties, no fight is more important than the people against the surveillance state. AI has pushed the limits of what is possible at our expense, making post-Patriot Act surveillance look like child’s play.

Democrat or Republican, liberal, conservative, or libertarian, now is the time for the people to check “the machine” and its machine learning. This is not political; it is about every American’s personal liberty.

Brendan Steinhauser is CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization that educates policymakers and the public about the implications of advanced AI.