Surveillance and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
What is Surveillance and Artificial Intelligence?
When we talk about Surveillance and artificial intelligence (AI), we’re referring to the use of algorithmic systems such as facial recognition, predictive analytics, and biometric tracking to monitor, assess, and sometimes direct human behavior. These technologies now appear in schools, workplaces, hospitals, transportation networks, and public spaces, often operating without individuals’ full awareness or consent. The growing use of AI in surveillance has raised concerns about privacy, power, and accountability in today’s digital world.
The Basic Idea
Imagine the following scenario. Jordan, a delivery driver in his mid-thirties, is pulled over after a nearby police department’s surveillance system flags his license plate. He’s baffled. The vehicle isn’t stolen, and he hasn’t broken any traffic laws. Minutes later, the officers explain: an AI-powered video analytics surveillance tool had been scanning security footage from a recent break-in, and his route matched one seen in the footage—same neighborhood, similar time of day, comparable van. The match wasn’t 100% exact, but it was enough to trigger an alert.
The officers send him on his way. There’s no ticket, no formal record. Still, the encounter leaves him disconcerted. Every day, he drives the same route. Nothing in his routine has changed, yet he can’t help wondering who’s watching, and what else the system might infer.
Scenarios like this are no longer rare. Across many countries, including Canada and the U.S., police departments are adopting AI tools to process enormous volumes of video from public and private cameras.1 These systems can scan faces, identify license plates, trace vehicle movements from one location to another, and forecast where a person or vehicle is likely headed next. The idea is to help officers focus their resources and respond to incidents sooner.
AI-driven surveillance now shapes decisions well beyond policing. Schools use it to monitor students’ messages to one another on school-managed platforms.2 Hospitals use it to track patient health.3 Corporations use it to watch employee movements.4 These tools are appealing to decision-makers and stakeholders because they’re fast, scalable, and reduce human labor. At the same time, their widespread use across industries invites very challenging questions. AI systems can draw from cameras, sensors, social media interactions, GPS records, and biometric data, layering those streams into profiles that follow people across settings. When this type of monitoring hums in the background of our daily lives, how much say do we have over what’s collected, analyzed, or inferred? Do we understand the full scope of what we’ve agreed to, or whether our consent to be monitored was ever truly given?
Humans have become hackable animals.
— Yuval Noah Harari, historian and best-selling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.5
About the Author
Maryam Sorkhou
Maryam holds an Honours BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto and is currently completing her PhD in Medical Science at the same institution. She studies how sex and gender interact with mental health and substance use, using neurobiological and behavioural approaches. Passionate about blending neuroscience, psychology, and public health, she works toward solutions that center marginalized populations and elevate voices that are often left out of mainstream science.
