Misanthropic

We’re back to talking about artificial intelligence (AI) this week, and unfortunately the topic hasn’t changed much from my last blog, either, as we reckon with the fallout of the Ring/Flock Safety scandal.

I think scandal is the right word given the situation, because calling it an “issue” doesn’t quite convey the severity of the problem, and calling it a “debacle” makes it a footnote in a history book - and it is very much still a current event.

In discussing giving Flock access to Ring’s vast camera network, I talked about the recent Nancy Guthrie kidnapping and how revelations of that stored data wouldn’t lead to a sense of security and relief but reinforce skepticism for security services.

As a result, this week, Flock cameras have become a target for vandalism as citizens have decided to destroy the cameras when they find them in the community, sometimes right after they’re deployed. This is exactly the type of response I expected, as people’s patience with AI surveillance has reached an inflection point.

Contrary to taking a lesson from that, signs point to a worsening surveillance ecosystem, as just last night Time Magazine reported that Anthropic, the popular developer of the Claude LLM, has dropped its flagship safety pledge following a public fight with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over refusing to lessen its safety standards.

As I’ve been going through end-of-year and fourth-quarter financial results from residential-facing companies this week, I noticed a trend of popularity in camera sales and service upgrades, but the ink was dry on that a long time before these more current events. The second quarter is going to be interesting this year, depending on how long of a memory people have.

Taking bets on goldfish, or elephants.