Research group says AI surveillance expanding worldwide

WASHINGTON – A research group says a growing number of countries are following China’s lead in deploying artificial intelligence to track citizens.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says at least 75 countries are actively using AI tools such as facial recognition for surveillance.

The list of countries where some form of AI surveillance is used includes liberal democracies such as the United States and France as well as more autocratic regimes.

Tuesday’s report from the group says Chinese tech companies led by Huawei are supplying much of the AI surveillance to countries around the world. Other companies such as Japan’s NEC Corporation and U.S.-based IBM, Palantir and Cisco are also major international providers of AI surveillance tools.

The report doesn’t distinguish between legitimate and unlawful or harmful uses of digital surveillance.