Last July, San Jose issued an open invitation to technology companies to mount cameras on a municipal vehicle that began periodically driving through the city’s district 10 in December, collecting footage of the streets and public spaces. The images are fed into computer vision software and used to train the companies’ algorithms to detect the unwanted objects, according to interviews and documents the Guardian obtained through public records requests.
We’re all shocked that New Technology X is used to target and oppress people
I’m going to choose to believe that the goal is to know how to more efficiently deliver aid to those that need it
From the screen grabs, Since when is a legally street parked RV a homeless encampment? Looks like picking low hanging fruit for campaign talking points.
Is it done to give them home quicker? Is it?
*sigh*
Maybe it’s to help them.
Don’t tell me, I like the illusion.
quite ironically in this context, san jose is named after st. joseph – he of the legal dad of jesus fame – who was once famously told there was no room at the inn and had to make do in a stable.
Sounds about right for American-christianity.
Only if you’re charging a luxury room price for the stable.
the accuracy for lived-in cars is still far lower: between 10 and 15%
Sounds like the tech isn’t terribly useful
I wonder if it could spot Steve
I’m so grateful he’s Canadian
It doesn’t have to be accurate to be useful
Case in point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651
Basically a dowsing rod, totally incapable of detecting bombs, drugs, etc. But possibly still useful as a probable cause generator.
That was probably one of the more depressing Wiki articles I’ve read in a minute.
That surely won’t stop governments from throwing millions at it or private companies from taking the money.
Holy Mackerel! Could this be any more of an extremely boring dumb and awful cyberpunk dystopia? Good God!
They start out identifying the various “races” probably. I’m a brown person and would like to keep reminding everyone that different races do not exist in the sense that it is not a scientific term with any meaning. A term with proper meaning is “species” and there is only one “homosapiens”… it’s not just Juantastic who lives under the bridge, it’s all of us. We are all a single family. Anyway, would you let your brother or sister or parents or relatives go live under a bridge and hungry? Nah right? What if they were thousands of miles away and didn’t have a place to sleep in? Still nah! You would do whatever to try to help! So why are there homeless people in every city and why do we not help Gaza and Ukraine people? Right? We need to do a better job!
“unwanted objects”
When housing becomes a for profit business, this is the result. It’s happening in my city in Canada as well.
I have a homeless community sprouting up behind our cul de sac and it gets bigger each spring. It likely disappears in the winter, I’ve no desire to walk through the uncleared snow to find out. And a few blocks away people are camping out on sidewalks everywhere, it’s becoming an epidemic, in a city that was once very affordable.
Tulsa Oklahoma is full of homeless encampments and this is supposed to be one of the cheaper states to live in. Yet landlords want to price their places like the bigger cities. It is scary to see what cost to rent in this town compared to the pay being offer for jobs. Its wonder there isn’t more homeless.
Being homeless is like the software piracy equivalent of housing. You’re not paying but rich people are “losing money” since homeless people aren’t paying them $4000+/month therefore it’s a crime.
Do you really think the concerns about encampments are all from rent seeking landlords?
Here in Minneapolis it’s the number of murders, gang violence (territory), rape, and human trafficking.
Second tier issues are overdoses, fires, sanitation (which doesn’t sound like much until you see the people with fingers and toes rotting off), and crime rates increasing as they try to make enough money to feed their drug habits.
It’s a very complex issue. Much more complex than “the landlords are upset people aren’t paying rent”.
These ‘homeless’ are no better than Gypsies. They reject society and take advantage of the good nature in people. They are scumbags and do not deserve sympathy.
If they can stand on the same corner every day at the same time they are more than capable of getting a job.
This comment is so ridiculous it has to be some sort of bait.
Yeah it’s a bit racist about the Gypsies on top of the rest of the shit-take
Not my fault you have your head up your ass. Open your eyes. Think for yourself.
Too scary huh? Never mind just go back to sleep, be a good little NPC.
that is a disgusting take
Reality isn’t here to amuse you. People with nice shoes and cell phones aren’t ‘homeless’. They prey on the naive.
Are you talking about billionaires?
You are completely divorced from the reality on the ground.
A good chunk of the unhoused (at least where I live, US CA) have jobs, it’s just not enough for rent or they can’t find a place because of poor credit, which means the places available are even more expensive. Rent has increased faster than median income, and way faster than low income.
Most unhoused are there temporarily. Anything nice they have may be from before they got into their present situation. And what are they supposed to do? Pawn off their cell phone for pennies on the dollar?
The explosion in number of unhoused people is not just a bunch of people happening to have some sort of moral failure all at once. The simpler explanation is that our economy and society is failing. And what do we expect to see as resources are hoarded by the powerful at exponentially increasing rates? Where do those resources come from?
Also self report on your attitude toward Roma people.
Gaslight all you want. Homeless people are not ‘down-and-out’. There’s plenty of help for those people who want it. The rest are scammer scumbags.
your attitude toward Roma people.
Again you reject reality - https://www.policemag.com/special-units/article/15349960/gypsies-kings-of-con
Do you know how much work it is to live unhoused? How uncomfortable and dehumanizing? If you are completely without shelter, how it is after it rains, or the air is choked with smoke during fire season?
It seems like you have just one explanation for everything here. When there’s a problem, it’s because of some moral failing that has to be punished. The publication you reference is telling.
Your attitude toward both Roma and unhoused is an outside look in, entirely through the lens of criminality. There is no understanding there. You are missing the big picture, the why behind all of the things people do.
If you really want to scam people, you start an LLC and live comfortably off of other people’s work, like, you know, rich people do.
Every year California is becoming more like Night City. Cyperpunk is supposed to be a dystopia, not an aspiration.
Hate my state.
Vote better.
Doesn’t the Democratic party have complete majority control of most cities and the state legislature?
That’s a party which usually claims to be about taking care of poor people or ‘housing is a human right’, but I keep seeing evidence that part of California’s issue is residents eliminating any/all zoning that isn’t classic single family homes in places where there’s tons of good jobs, but super expensive housing.
It’s hard to wade through political party propaganda, but I thought this was well documented.
I don’t live in CA, so I don’t really know more than articles publish, but it just seems like they voted for the more American liberal/progressive party and still aren’t getting those values?
Yeah, it turns out that politicians in both parties are garbage people pandering to the masses.
Instead of voting along party lines people need to vote for real people that can act like adults and actually govern. Most of our government officials are now too busy passing meaningless resolutions, performing the same study that’s popular in all the other cities, or busy on social media pandering to vocal minorities.
By all means, find a better one.
Uf, this is not a great response. That citizen should stay and add their valuable voice to calls and demands for improvement.
Someone who hates California sounds like a useless fucking Californian already–lacking “value.”
Not… Everyone can afford to pick up everything and move or they may have other factors like job and family keeping them there
Yeah im trying my damnest but this state is meant to keep people poor.
Real shit? No fucking way bro. Please explain what being poor and trapped feels like to me.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For the last several months, a city at the heart of Silicon Valley has been training artificial intelligence to recognize tents and cars with people living inside in what experts believe is the first experiment of its kind in the United States.
Last July, San Jose issued an open invitation to technology companies to mount cameras on a municipal vehicle that began periodically driving through the city’s district 10 in December, collecting footage of the streets and public spaces.
There’s no set end date for the pilot phase of the project, Tawfik said in an interview, and as the models improve he believes the target objects could expand to include lost cats and dogs, parking violations and overgrown trees.
City documents state that, in addition to accuracy, one of the main metrics the AI systems will be assessed on is their ability to preserve the privacy of people captured on camera – for example, by blurring faces and license plates.
The group, made up of dozens of current and formerly unhoused people, has recently been fighting a policy proposed last August by the San Jose mayor, Matt Mahan, that would allow police to tow and impound lived-in vehicles near schools.
In addition to providing a training ground for new algorithms, San Jose’s position as a national leader on government procurement of technology means that its experiment with surveilling encampments could influence whether and how other cities adopt similar detection systems.
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